


Feet First

by OverNoot



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Action & Romance, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, F/F, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, The British Empire but in space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-21
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-01-20 15:43:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 54,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12436035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverNoot/pseuds/OverNoot
Summary: It is 150 years since the invention of faster than light travel and humanity's expansion into space is in full swing. With the expansion of humanity's reach has come hardships and conflict such as the growth of space piracy. Amid growing internal and external pressure to once again address the growing threat of piracy and the growing call among the outer colonies for independence, Jack Morrison is granted approval to lead an experimental combat unit named O.D.S.T. to address the issue head on. Some of his first recruits include Sargent Fareeha Amari and Doctor Angela Ziegler.





	1. Orders To Attend

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Everyone! I've had this story for a while that I've slowly been adding to whenever I hit a wall on my other stories. I thought I would post it between chapters of my other fic. I've pre-written most of the first chapters so it wont impact anything else i'm working on.
> 
> At the end of the day I don't expect this to be too popular but honestly this is the story i've always wanted to write. 
> 
> Special thanks to Thetjguy, MechaQueen and Jayps for reading what I've sen them and for giving me feedback and suggestions.

It was rare for Jack Morrison to be having such a good time as he sat in a bar by the beach just north of Sydney. Career soldiers like himself were never ones to take too much time off, ultimately he'd been forced by his commanding officer to take at least week off. Jack had protested but he'd never refused an order and wasn’t going to start now.

Jack sat at the back of the bar, one eye on the sunny beach mere meters away the other on the tv built into the wall with its volume down low. The tv played the same news story it had done since he arrived five days ago. Two young news anchors spoke over b-roll footage of the HMS Hardball as they described once again how the ship had been taken by pirates while on patrol. Occasionally the video would show the faces of the crew that had been killed or it would cut away to a politician who had given a press conference on the steps of parliament the day after the attack.

“We will respond with the full force of her majesty’s fleet” he had said in front of the cameras to the applause of all there to hear him. While most believed that something would be done, those in the navy knew very little would come of it. They suspected an increase in patrols, maybe a crackdown but nothing major, nothing like the politician was promising. They were however concerned as the Hardball was the first navy ship to be destroyed by pirates since the last police action in which Morrison like many others had made a name for themselves. Although it had been ten years since the last police action the memories were still fresh in the people’s minds.

The news report then cut to a panel of experts in outer-colonies affairs. “Something must be done about this latest spate of pirate attacks.” One of the colonial representatives said. “We’ve seen an increase in attacks on not only commercial shipping but colonies too; the Earth government has been failing in its duty to keep the colonies safe. What happened to the Hardball is merely a result of not keeping the outer-colonies safe.”

“What about your obligations.” One of the earth born panelists cut in. “The outer-colonies continue to come up short on mineral exports, you ether go on strike or you refuse to ship your full contribution. You have the lowest military enlistment rate, highest rate of subsidisation by the rest of the empire yet you still claim that you wish to be independent.” He said before the panel devolved into a shouting match.

Jack had just ordered his third drink when he eyed three men entering the bar. They looked out of place in their full uniforms; two bore the patch of the Sydney military police the other wore the patch of the royal signals brigade. The signaller spotted Jack as he scanned the room and marched over to him with his escort.

“Lieutenant Commander Morrison?” the man spoke once he approached Jack’s table. The signaller held a red envelope while the two MPs rested their hands on their holstered sidearms.

“Yes” Jack sighed as he eyed the signaller. He looked like he was 18 and while he tried to look calm Jack could see his hands were shaking. That’s when Jack noticed the red envelope. Red envelopes were never a good sign in Jack’s opinion. He had received one when he was transferred to Overwatch, another when he was transferred out five years later, his most recent one had been court-martial proceedings. Nothing ever good came in a red envelope.

“A message from London.” The boy spoke as he gave Jack the envelope. Jack inspected seal on the back. It was one he didn’t recognise which left Jack unsure how bad the news would be. The boy remained by Jack’s table waiting expectantly. “You must open it right away sir, I cannot leave until I have verified that you have read and understood the message.”

Jack rolled his eyes at the boy as he broke the seal; no messenger had ever waited before. Inside the envelope was a single piece of paper.

 _Orders to Attend                                                                                              Date: 150:1:12_  
  
Lt Commander Morrison  
  
You are to report to the Naval war office Whitehall no later than 0930 150:1:14.  
You are to proceed with all haste and this order shall entitle you to all necessary support from the members of her majesty’s navy.  
All other duties that you have been tasked with for the foreseeable future should be delegated or transferred.  
Dress Uniform is expected.  
  
Signed  
Vice Admiral Albury

\---

If there was something more Jack hated than holidays it was London. He hated the rain, the masses of people and all the noise. The place also made all his old injuries flare up for some unknown reason and his lifetime of service had left him with more than a few.

He’d had no difficulty getting to the former old war office building once used by Winston Churchill by virtue of his red envelop. It allowed the barer priority access to transportation to ensure a quick arrival time. This however was not always a good thing as in Jack’s case the first flight leaving Sydney for London was a cargo flight on an aging transport. Although a short flight Jack had spent the ride squashed between cargo pallets. 

Like the good naval officer he was Jack’s first destination was Nelson’s Column. The impressive monument to a man long since dead flanked by four lions was always an officer’s first destination when entering the naval district, be them a marine or otherwise. It was also the only place left where one could get a copy of the naval dispatches prior to it being published on the net. It was a hive of almost silent activity and it was said that more battles had been fought within Trafalgar square than the rest of the empire’s wars combined.

With his respects paid Jack made his way to the naval headquarters. The impressive building was unchanged from its original design like much of the surrounding buildings. Despite war, technology and a harsh weight of time itself these buildings still stood strong against all forces that opposed them, a fitting example of what was expected of the men and women who worked within them. He had never been to the admiralty building before and felt understandably intimidated as he stepped into the beating heart of the navy. Jack didn’t have time to marvel long at the impressive architecture and antique art as he stood in the doorway as he was immediately approached by a broad chested ceremonial guard.

“Can I assist you sir?” The guard asked sounding both respectful of Jack’s rank yet no less intimidating.

Jack froze for a moment before patting himself down in search of his orders. “I am to report to Lord Aubrey.” He said as he produced his orders and the important accompanying envelop.

The guard recognised the importance of Jack’s orders instantly and signalled for a nearby guard to approach. “Right this way sir.” He said respectfully as he set off clearing a path though the scattered people around the entrance and headed deep into the building. His partner walked behind Jack, his hand tightly clutching his ceremonial sabre in its sheath although Jack was beginning to wonder if it was purely ceremonial.

The trio walked deeper into the building down halls lined with impressive works of art depicting great heroes and past battles along forgotten. The few people milling around the corridors respectfully stood aside, their eyes cast down as the precision passed them. Finally after two flights of stairs and after passing countless seemingly identical strong oak wood doors the lead guard stopped. He delivered two sharp knocks to the door and paused only opening it when voice within called for them to enter. Jack was quickly ushered inside by the rear guard before the door was firmly shut behind him.

Jack was now in an impressive looking office. Its walls were decorated in much the same way the halls had been, large extravagant paintings depicting naval success and the window opposite the door looked out towards St James’s park and the palace beyond.

“And who might you be?” in front of the window behind an impressive wooden desk sat an aging man. He looked at Jack over his reading glasses suspiciously, unsure why a man in full dress uniform was now standing in his office.

“Lieutenant Commander Morrison, Sir” Jack replied as he snapped to attention.

“Morrison.” The man said quietly to himself as he sat back in his chair. His grim expression betrayed little of what he was thinking as he continued to inspect Jack. “Your unit?” He asked.

“18th infantry brigade.” Jack replied quickly and confidently.

“And before that?” The man that Jack was now suspecting to be Lord Aubrey himself asked with an inquisitive tone.

“The 112 light infantry attached to the Augusta flotilla.”

“Ah the One-One Two” Aubrey smiled. He motioned for Jack to take a seat in front of his desk. “Lord Wight was one of the most impressive field commanders I have ever met, a man of singular vision.” Aubrey’s once grim expression had softened as he remembered his old acquaintance. “One of the few men who still carried the officer’s sword into battle. God that would have been an impressive sight to behold.”

“An impressive man and a leader.” Jack agreed. “Unfortunately I never had the pleasure of meeting the man, I served under his predecessor; Singh.”

Aubrey’s face darked at the mention of the man’s name. “Singh.” He muttered. “Never before has a man so unworthy followed a man so great.” He said solemnly. “Ghastly business with those helium miners. A poor showing on both sides if the dispatches are to be believed.”

“Both sides made mistakes.” Jack said quietly as memories once thought repressed reared their ugly head. “Singh didn’t make things any easier.” he added. “That man should never have been put in charge of anyone and to think he was a lord before he reached us.”

“All men are equal before the wall.” Aubrey said. “Even lords cannot escape the Queen’s justice.”

“Sir if I might ask; why have you summoned me?” Jack asked after a prolonged period of silence in which both men were lost within their own reflection.

“I summoned you?” Aubrey asked as he once again eyed Jack with suspicion.

“You did, sir” Jack handed over his orders along with its envelope.

Aubrey read the orders quietly to himself taking note of the date especially. “This isn’t my signature.” He said quietly as he held the orders close to his reading glasses. “That blasted…” he took a breath.  
“Winston you treasonous bastard.” He roared with a voice more suited to giving commands at the height of battle than a quiet office. “Get your arse in here before I have you put before the wall.”

From a side door emerged a hulking man far larger than the two guards that had escorted Jack here. Despite his size the new arrival seemed intimidated by Aubrey’s outburst. “Yes sir?” he asked in a polite voice that didn’t seem to match his size.

“What is the meaning of this?” Aubrey said now on his feet and waving the orders in his hand. “This isn’t my signature.”

“May I?” Winston asked in a respectful tone as he cautiously took a step towards the enraged Aubrey. He received he orders and inspected the signature. “Sir, this is your signature.” He said quietly.

Aubrey was undeterred in his conviction until Winston pulled three files from his desk, each paper baring an identical signature to Jack’s orders. “Ah.” Aubrey said quietly, his rage quickly dissipating into embarrassment. “Winston, I don’t remember signing this.” He whispered into his aid’s ear. “Why did I call for him?”

“Nothing to fear sir.” Winston said. “I have the files if you wish me to brief the commander for you.”

“Thankyou Winston.” Aubrey said as he took his seat. “And… sorry about before.” He added quietly.

“Quite alright sir.” Winston nodded as he ushered Jack into the adjoining room. “Shall I have your tea sent up? Or would you like it in the garden?”

“Here is fine, that will be all.” Aubrey said before Winston gave one final polite nod and shut the door.

Jack was now in a far smaller office than Aubrey’s which was made even smaller by Winston’s hulking mass.

“Nothing to worry about.” Winston said as he took a seat behind a desk far too small for his size. “Lord Aubrey tends to spring into violent action at a moment’s notice, a desired trait in a ship’s captain not so much a landlocked one. Although in this case he was right, I did forge his signature.”

“You did what?” Jack gasped. “I ought to report you.”

“Jack wait, let’s not be hasty. Let me explain.” Winston stuttered, urging Jack to take a seat. “I have to forge all his signatures. His lordship took some shrapnel to his back on his final tour. It makes his hand shake whenever he writes and he won’t let the medics look at it. His signatures are so wildly different from one another I have to resign every order he makes. I’ve never abused my power.” he explained. “Well never except for your orders.” He added.

“Why?” Jack asked.

“Because I didn’t have time to wait for the proper channels. I swear this was the only way.” Winston said. “Do you remember the project idea you submitted to naval research and development a few years back?”

Jack did remember, it had been the product of 6 months of effort, countless hours of research and a lot of begging to have a prototype designed. “I remember it was rejected.” Jack didn’t try to hide the bitterness in his voice. The letter he received that informed him of the rejection of the idea had been one of the lowest points in his career.

“Yes… yes it was but times have changed and the powers that be want to revisit the program. Back when you first suggested the program the technology had not caught up yet, now it has and the prototypes we have created in theory should be able to do the job you described. The HMS Gibraltar is being refitted as we speak and I have been given permission to green light the program. I thought it best that you should lead the program, that’s why I forged the order so no one else could be selected to take the lead. We are willing to give you a 35 man platoon and 6 weeks to train them to whatever standard you think is necessary. You will have full control over everything: training, equipment and personnel. You can pull from anywhere in the Royal Navy as long as they are willing then they can join.”

Jack was overwhelmed, moments before his idea was dead and buried and now it was partially standing in front of him asking him to take the lead. This is what Jack dreamed of, an independent command that he would be in charge of without all that political bullshit that had brought overwatch down.

“So Jack, how does that sound? If you want to think…”

“I accept”

Winston seemed surprised that he was so eager. “You do? Excellent! Now I know finding people for such a dangerous task may be difficult so I took the liberty of pulling some names that may be suitable for your team. Now I must make this very clear Jack. While you will be outside of the normal command structure you will have to answer to me and I answer to his lordship, I trust you will not let us down.”

“I understand.”

“Excellent.” Winston beamed as he excitedly shook Jack’s hand.

“Well then Winston I should get started right away, if there’s anything else?”

“Ah yes a few more things. Firstly for training we have found you a base in Scotland the location is in the file.” Winston handed over a large file, the front emblazoned with red stencilled letters reading _Operation Pegasus_ and top secret. “And another thing: the training program is to be referred to as Operation Pegasus. Ah and the unit designation, the boys down in the designation department came up with a name, while yours was good we improved it somewhat. The official name for your type of unit will be: Orbital Drop Shock Troopers or ODST for short, yours will be the 1st ODST division.” 

\---

Jack sat alone in an office of the quiet training facility in the Scottish highlands. Before him were a pile of personnel files, a mixture of suggestions by Winston and a number he had pulled. The ones he had selected were people he had met during operations. He was dismayed to find that most of the files he requested listed these individuals as killed in action or retired.

_Where to begin? Where am I going to find 34 people that won’t run the moment I tell them my plan?_

Overwatch never had an issue finding recruits but they didn’t ask of volunteers, you were transferred not asked. Jack had only been able to keep in touch with one person from his Overwatch days, _I have to start somewhere I suppose_ he thought reaching for his communicator.

“Jesse its Jack, how soon can you come up to Scotland..” Jack spun in his chair and looked out of his office window. Beyond he saw the dozen or so members of the royal engineers erecting the huts that would house his troops.  “…I need a hand with something.”


	2. Pressed into service

Jesse had only been on base for 10 minutes before Jack thrust a large stack of personnel files into his arms. “What the hell am I meant to do with these Jack?” Jack still had neglected to tell Jesse why he was here in the first place or even say hello to his old friend.

“I want you to go through those files and find me 33 individuals who you think might be crazy enough to join us.” Jack said before he returned to his own stack of files.

“Join us? Jack what us? What am I doing here, explain yourself” Jessie said angrily.

“You remember that proposal I submitted a few years back? They approved it, I have 6 weeks to find and train an understrength platoon as part of a pilot program”

Jesse went white. “What? They approved that insane pipe dream of yours? And you agreed to run it? Jack have you lost your goddam mind? That shit was crazy even back then. There is no way you are going to find anyone willing to be shot from obit in a fucking box and then be expected to fight. You know what, fuck you Jack for even calling me out here.” Jesse looked genuinely upset that he had been dragged away from whatever bar he was in to help Jack with his admittedly insane idea.

“Jesse please, this is my last shot at doing something right for a change.” Jack's words hit Jesse like a ton of bricks, in all his years of knowing him Jack had never said please. “I don’t expect you to join, just help me find some that will.” He was lying, he knew once Jesse was invested in the program he would have no choice but to stay.

“Alright, I’ll help. But there is no goddam way you are getting me in one of those goddam pods.” Jesses said as he dumped his stack of files on one of the empty desks.

The search for recruits was a long and unsuccessful one. Jesse knew more alive people than Jack but whenever Jack called and offered them a position they bailed when they heard what they would be signing up for, which was understandable given the role.

Jacks proposal was as follows; highly skilled and specially trained infantry would be loaded into individual pods which then would be launched by ships in orbit. These pods would fall from space, guided by these troops towards the ground. Once they reach their landing zone these troops would exit the pods and act like shock troops. Jack had gotten the idea after reading about the paratrooper infantry used during the old earth wars, Jack merely updated the idea to incorporate current advances in technology. The paratrooper infantry had high casualty rates and Jack expected the same to be true here but with the best training and equipment he hoped that the idea would work.

Jack was pulled from a pile of files when he heard a knock at the door. It was a young private that had been assigned to him to assist with administration tasks, he was holding a large amount of paperwork.

“Are these more personnel files? That is the last thing I need right now.”

The private seemed to be shaking in fear of the old solider. “Uhh no sir. These are requisition forms for you to fill out, if you want to equip and train a full platoon you are going to need to supplies… Sir.”

Jack had no idea about this side of leading troops, he was a combat leader not a desk jockey, he hadn’t even though about standard equipment yet.

Thankfully Jesse stepped in, “Give’em here kid, ill sort this stuff out Jack. Those files there look like good candidates you should look at.” Jack looked thought the files, most seemed acceptable a mixture of fresh and veteran soldiers.

One name caught Jacks eye, “Jesse, Amari is MIA you know that. Why is her file here?”

“Different Amari” Jesse called from his desk which was now covered in requisition forms.

“Oh” Jack said quietly to himself as he began reading the file.

 _Amari, Fareeha_  
Age: 32  
  
Rank: Sgt  
Current unit: 3 rd royal marine regiment (on leave)  
_Role: Fire team leader, Charlie squad 1_ st platoon Bravo Company  
  
Remarks:  
Awarded Conspicuous Gallantry Cross following action at Lions head (see attached after action report)

While her file was impressive it was the attached AAR that caught Jack’s eye. The report detailed a fire fight between her platoon and an unknown number of pirates. During the action her squad became separated and its leadership killed or wounded, Fareeha took command of the squad and successfully organised a defence until they could be reached. Despite being injured she kept fighting and the squad’s survival was a direct result of her leadership and fighting ability according to her squad mates.

“She’s perfect, why is she only a sergeant? With leadership like that she should at least be leading a squad by now, not just a fire team.” He mumbled to himself as he flicked though the pages of the file. He found his answer at the very bottom under the remarks.

  1. _Amari is currently on leave pending investigation for assaulting an officer._



Ah, just like her mother.

Jack grabbed his coat heading for the door. “Jesse I’m going to meet a candidate, call me if you need anything”

“No Jack don’t you go leaving me with all….” He was cut off as Jack shut the door. Fareeha’s base was close by and as part of her punishment she was confined to her base.

Jacks intuition was correct as when he asked the duty officer if she was still on base he pointed him towards the gym. Jack had meet Fareeha once before, he had been the one to tell her that her mother was MIA, she had been younger then and he didn’t know what to expect.

\----------------  
  
For Fareeha the gym was her sanctuary; here she could block everything out. No more yelling officers or complaining squad mates, no more first meetings that begun with the words I knew your mother or I once served with her, here it was just herself and weights. She was just finishing her cool down, still dripping with sweat when a man with greying hair approached her. He looked like an officer but didn’t have a unit patch, never a good sign in her experience. She snapped into a salute when he got closer “Sir”.

The man seemed surprised that he was being saluted, “At ease, you are Fareeha Amari right?”

“Yes sir”

“Excellent I’m in the right place. My name is Jack Morrison, I worked with your mother.”

Fareeha remembered him now, she had been young and overcome with grief when he arrived at her door and told her the news of her mother. He had offered no comfort or condolences simply the message before leaving her crying at the door.  
“I remember. Why are you here?” There was no emotion in Fareeha’s voice and she looked Jack dead in the eye.

“I would like to offer you a job. I’m starting a new unit and I need a squad leader, your name came up.” Jack said coolly.

While on the outside Fareeha didn’t flinch on the inside she was a whirlwind of emotions, all she ever wanted was to lead a unit herself, this seemed too good to be true. “What’s the catch?”

Jack seemed to be expecting this question and motioned for her to sit on a piece of gym equipment as he did the same. He lent in close before speaking barely above a whisper. “This unit is experimental and highly dangerous, the plan is simple: specifically trained troops dropped from orbit to fight where they are needed most.”

_Did he just say orbit?_

He continued, “I’ve only been given about 2 squads worth of men to start and I want you to lead one of them. I’ve read your file Fareeha you have proven that you are capable of leading a squad. I’m not saying that it will be easy but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think you would be up to the task.”

Fareeha thought for a moment but in her heart she knew the answer, she didn’t care about the danger she wanted a squad of her own. “Alright I’ll do it, when do I meet my squad.”

Jack leaned back with an uneasy look on his face. “About that… Currently your squad is only you, I haven’t found anyone else yet. Which means you can build it yourself; you get two fire teams of 6, yourself and a medic. Meet me at the base next week with your squad and we will start training. You’ll get more details in the coming days.”

Fareeha was still hesitant, what about her investigation? “Uhh, Sir I’m still under investigation following an… incident.”  
  
Jack didn’t seem fazed by it. “I know the base commander, ill sort it out.” He stood up extending his hand, “Welcome to the ODSTs lieutenant Amari. Now go find yourself a squad.” He gave her a salute then left her standing stunned in the middle of the gym.

Fareeha’s first move was to tell her fire team. They had been together for a long time and she knew they would follow her anywhere, even if it did mean jumping from orbit. She was correct in her assumptions, while some were hesitant all agreed to join her. _Great 6 down 6 to go… where the hell am I going to find a medic?_  
  
\- - -

As a child Angela Ziegler was terrified of the dark. She had grown out of her fear like most children but now as she was huddled up in the corner of a pitch black confinement cell she felt the tendrils of fear once again seeping back into her.

Angela wasn’t entirely sure where she was, what day it was or the time, the only thing she was certain of was her cell. She knew it was small, she couldn’t fully extend her arms outwards but she could stand up fully. She knew the walls were poured concrete and the floor was tiled, both were cold against her uncovered feet and thinly covered back. It was sound proof as she couldn’t hear anything except for her own breathing. Her only access with the outside world came from a hole in her cell door which would open so her food could be shoved inside. She had been fed 15 times since her arrival but as far as she could tell they were at irregular intervals.

The change to her routine of food and darkness came as a surprise. Following her food instead of the hatch shutting immediately it remained open.

“Hello?” Angela croaked her voice weak from a lack of use.

“Doctor Angela Zeigler?” A male voice asked.

“Yes?”

“My name is Judge Kennedy, I’m here to read you your charges and receive your plea.” The voice said. There was a pause coupled with the sounds of shuffling papers. “First we have 32 counts of involuntary manslaughter.” He said grimly.

Angela nodded to herself in the darkness, she had expected to be held accountable for the lives lost. The facility where she once worked held 35 doctors, scientists, support staff and guards. Of the survivors one was a pilot who had unknowingly flew her to the mainland and the other had been in London reporting on the program’s success.

“Two counts of experimentation without the patient’s consent.” The judge continued. “And finally one count of taking leave without prior permission.”

Angela laughed to herself quietly; of course they would find a way to punish her for escaping on top of everything else.

“How do you plead to these charges?” the judge asked.

“Guilty on all counts.” Angela replied. She knew she could have tried to fight the charges but knew it would have done little good. The real criminals would evade justice as they were either a part of the system dispensing it or currently ash blowing in the wind out in the north Atlantic.

“In light of the serious nature of for crime, your attempt to escape detection, the threat your actions posed to the empire’s stability and the need to keep this incident under wraps you will be transferred from this place immediately.” The judge said sternly.

The hatch was shut followed by the sound of the door’s magnetic locks releasing. Angela was blinded by the light that flooded into her dark cell. She tried to shield her eyes with her arms but they were roughly grabbed as she was pulled from the cell. Her wrists and ankles were shackled, the cold steel cut into her pale flesh. Slowly her eyes became accustomed to light after so long in the darkness.

“Forward.” A harsh voice behind her barked.

When Angela didn’t move immediately she was shoved forward. She was marched down a long corridor, the walls lined with identical metal doors like the one she had been held behind. She wondered how many were filled but there seemed to be no way of telling and there was not a sound except for footsteps as she was marched down the hall.

At the end of the hall was another large metal door that begun to slowly open as they approached. Angela risked a peak behind her to see who was with her. A guard stood right behind her dressed in standard combat plate with a baton in his hand and a pistol on his hip. Behind the first guard stood two more, a male and a female dressed the same as the first although they carried rifles instead of batons. The final person in the parade was a man dressed in a fitted suit, she suspected this person to be the judge that had spoken to her.

“Eyes forward.” The lead guard barked as he struck the back of Angela’s legs causing her to cry out in pain.

She did as she was told and watched in silence as the doors opened at an agonisingly slow speed. As the door opened Angela slowly begun to see more of what was in front of her. The next room was a long corridor much like the previous except this room’s walls were lined with open cells.

“Forward.” The guard said as he poked Angela between the shoulder blades.

Most of the cells were empty Angela noticed as she walked past. She saw three men in their own cells, two were asleep the other on his bed reading. He glanced over the top of his book at her before returning his focus to the words in front of him.

At the end of the hall stood a guard by the only other door. As Angela and her escort approached he typed a code into the door’s keypad, opening it to reveal stairs leading up, the top bathed in natural light and the smell of fresh air.

\---

“I do appreciate your help in all this.” Jack said as he took a sat. He was in the base commander’s office sitting opposite the man himself. By sear luck the base commander; Bruce White was an old acquaintance of Jack’s when they had both served in the light infantry together.

“Always a pleasure to help out an old friend.” The commander said as he poured two glasses of scotch and handed one to jack. “I’m not sure how her unit commander will take it but I’ll smooth things over.”

Jack didn’t need anyone’s approval to offer Amari a position in the ODSTs, Lord Aubrey’s decree and signature would take care of that. He was talking to the base commander as a courtesy and because Fareeha had been placed on confinement which only the commander could override. “So who did she hit?” Jack asked as he took a sip of his drink, he had long learned that in the officer class there was never a time that was considered too early to drink.

“One of my staff.” The commander laughed. “In on rotation from the colonies. Apparently he was speaking ill of the dead” The commander shook with laughter as he remembered seeing the officer the next day with a guilty look on his face and a large black eye. “Believe me I didn’t want it written up, on account of what she did at Lion’s head, not to mention all that her mother did.”

“But MPs are MPs.” Jack nodded. “Did you ever meet her mother, Ana?”

“Once.” The commander sighed as he lent back in his chair. “At some award ceremony. She was getting another dozen or so medals and I was just there for the free feed.” He laughed. “Very impressive woman if a little intimidating.”

“You should have seen her out in the field, now that was intimidating. This one time…” Jack was cut off by a polite knock at the door.

The commander set down his drink and called for the new arrival to enter.

“Apologies sir.” The commander’s assistant said as she stood in the door to his office. “But you asked me to remind you when it was time to head down to the square.”

“Is it time already?” The commander asked glancing to his watch. He then turned his chair to look out of his office’s impressive windows to the yard below. The base’s admin building was a large square with an open yard in the middle designed for parade and occasionally as a transport pad. The commander nodded to himself as he saw a collection of armed soldiers standing to one side as a transport landed in the centre of the square. “I do hate this job sometimes.” He mumbled to himself. “Apologies jack.” He said as he turned back to his old friend. “I need to go deal with a prisoner. You have everything you needed?”

“I do yes.” Jack nodded. “May I join you?” he asked.

“If you’re not squeamish.” The commander said as he put on his heavy coat and officer’s hat.

“You’ll need to sign the order once you’re down there.” The assistant reminded as she handed over a folder that the commander tucked under his arm.

Jack followed the commander out of his office and down towards the yard in silence. “Did you hear about this Doctor Zeigler?” The commander asked as he paused at the final door that would lead them outside. “I thought not.” He continued when Jack shook his head. “Have a read of this if you want.” He said handing over the folder he had been carrying. “She’s getting off easy.” He murmured as he opened the door and stepped out into the cold, leaving Jack alone in the entrance way.

\---

Angela breathed a sigh of relief once she was finally above ground. The fresh air had never tasted so good she thought as she was walked out into a large courtyard surrounded on all sides by a continuous building. The courtyard was mostly empty except for a few soldiers standing around and a Pelican transport landed in the centre, its pilot smoking on the rear ramp. She got slightly excited when she saw the transport; she had never been off world before and thought they would be sending her to an off world facility or perhaps a prison hulk.

“Move.” The guard behind Angela growled as Angela had been standing still too long.

Once more Angela was shoved into movement and begun walking towards the Pelican.

The guard behind her laughed. “Nice try.” He said as he directed her away from the ship and towards the soldiers.

As she approached the soldiers glanced up at her and with a heavy sigh put out their cigarettes as they formed up. At first Angela was confused why her arrival would warrant a reaction, was her orange jumpsuit that strange? It was then that she noticed an officer approaching in company with a priest and a third man.

The guards sensed her apprehension and the two previously silent guards grabbed her by an arm each. “No…no no no no” Angela begun to stutter as she pulled against the guards restraining her. “You… you can’t do this!” She cried. Despite her attempts to break free the guards continued to walk her forward. “Please” She begged though tearful eyes at the nearest solider who didn’t dare look her in the eye instead turning downwards to his weapon.

The guards shoved her against the concrete wall its once smooth finish potted by a force Angela feared to think about. Her hands remained restrained and her leg restrains were chained to a metal ring bolted to the floor.

The guards retreated from the crying doctor as the priest approached. “Do you wish for me to pray with you?” He asked only to be met with sobs that wracked the blonde’s fragile body.

“Please” She begged. “It was an accident… I didn’t mean to hurt anybody.” She cried. “I’ll be good I swear.” She cried as the priest left.

Now a solider approached the grief stricken and shaking woman. He did not hold a rifle like the rest of the soldiers but he did carry something that made Angela cry even harder. “I’m sorry.” He whispered as he slipped the black bag over the blonde’s head. “Execution detail ready, sir” He announced when he was back at his post, in line with the rest of his soldiers stood before the crying doctor.

\---

Jack had been to his fair share of executions during his time, each was unique in their own way. His first had been during his first assignment after boot camp, a fresh recruit had fallen asleep during night watch allowing rebels to sabotage their equipment and kill two of their officers. The private had passed out from fear during his long march to the wall and had to be tied to a post to keep him upright. He had seen men break down and cry while others had stood tall as the firing squad took aim. Some had begged for a reprieve while others had egged their executioners on. Only two things had been consistence in his experiences, the condemned had died and he had felt nothing.

Except now.

Jack didn’t feel pity as he watched Doctor Ziegler writhe against her restraints as she cried and begged for mercy, he felt angry. He had read the incident report that explained the cruel experiments she had been running on unwilling victims. He had read how she’d tried to cover her tracks by destroying her own research station while her team was still inside. He was angry that Ziegler’s only punishment was 3 days in solitary then death, it wasn’t enough. “Commander.” He found himself saying. “If I might have a word.” The firing squad stood at rest waiting for the order to proceed as Jack walked up to his old friend.

“What is it Jack?” He asked quietly.

“It’s not enough… this isn’t punishment.”

“I know… That files a tough read.” The commander agreed. “But what can I do?”

Jack thought for a moment. “Her death warrant, give it to me.”

“Why?”

“I need a medic for each of my squads.” Jack said. “She can be one of them.”

“That doesn’t seem like punishment.” The commander said as he glanced over to the doctor now slumped on her knees crying into her black hood.

“I’ll make it a punishment.” Jack said with determination. “She’ll ether die on the first op or ill drop her myself if I find someone better.”

With a sigh the commander handed over the warrant. “I hope you know what you’re doing.” He said quietly. “Unshackle her.” He ordered.

One of the guards walked over to the sobbing woman and helped her to her feet. He removed the black hood and restraints. When Angela looked at him in confusion he shrugged before nodding in the commander and Jack’s direction.

“Doctor Zeigler this is Lieutenant Commander Morrison.” The base commander said as the shaking woman approached. “He’s starting a new unit and is in need of a medic.”

“O…ok” Angela said quietly. “Am… am I not being killed?”

“Oh you’ll die alright.” The commander laughed. “But before you do Jack here is going to get some worth out of you. She’s all yours Jack.” He finished with a nod before signalling for the confused execution detail to disperse.

“Come with me.” Jack growled as he set off out of the square. “Listen close as I’ll say this only once. You are now Private Zeigler, a combat medic in the 1st ODST regiment.”

“But I’m not trained…” Angela said quietly as she struggled to keep up with Jack’s pace.

“Then you better learn.” Jack said bitterly. They arrived at an armoury and Jack ordered Angela inside. “Private Zeigler needs some gear.” Jack said.

The armorer typed on his computer but the result made him frown. “I don’t have a private Ziegler but I do have a Doctor Zeigler.”

“Change her file, she’s a combat medic now. Her new unit is 1st ODST regiment.” Jack said.

The armorer shrugged and typed in what he was told, not seeming to care about the new unit or why Angela was in a prison jumpsuit. He returned with a large bag and handed it to Angela.

Jack then led her out and back into the open air. “Go in there and get dressed.” He ordered, pointing to an empty barracks. “Then report to Fareeha Amari, she should be around here somewhere. She is your new squad leader and you will follow her orders, understand?”

Angela nodded.

“Good because the moment you disobey orders or step out of line I’ll shoot you myself, got it?” He growled. “Anyone asks where you came from tell them that you volunteered, no one can know why you are really here. Let me make this absolutely clear for you, this is a punishment and I still expect you to die however this way I can both punish you and get some good out of you.” He said. “Now go!” He barked, sending Angela away into the barracks.


	3. Landsmen

Angela stumbled into the empty barracks with her kit bag in hand. “Hello?” She called into the bare room. There was silence except for the sounds of her canvas shoes against the polished floor as she cautiously walked the length of the building towards the bathroom. She had always hated the stark white tiles, polished metal fixtures and smell of bleach that made up almost every bathroom in the Navy.

She tried to avoid the large mirror that occupied one wall for she feared what her time in solitary had done to her but soon her curiosity got the better of her. Initially she was surprised with what she saw. Her hair was a mess but apart from the grime on her face and a slightly paler complexion she didn’t look all that bad. “How long was I locked up?” She wondered aloud as she splashed some water on her face. She had wanted to take a shower but it seemed that the hot water to the building had been cut off.

Still somewhat shaken by the day’s events Angela got dressed in the clothes she had been given by the armorer. She pulled on her regulation kit composing of, thick strong pants, itchy socks, a pair of boots that were both too big and too small at the same time and a navy blue shirt that had a red cross on the selves denoting her status as a medic. She packed the remaining spare clothing in a rucksack before heading back out into the cold in search of her new squad leader.

It took Angela almost 15 minutes to find someone who knew where Amari was quartered and another 15 to actually find the barracks. Shaking she opened the door; the barracks was like all on the base a long room with beds along each side and a bathroom at the end. For such a large room there seemed to be very few people, it looked like it could sleep 30 but only a handful of people were sitting around and talking towards the back. One of them noticed Angela shaking in the door way and walked over to her, he was tall but young looking more like a kid than a solider.

“Can I help you?” The way he spoke made it sound like Angela was intruding on something important.

“Ahh yes… I’m looking to report to a…. uhh… lieutenant Amari?”

The man cocked his head to one side. “You got caught up in this mess too? You don’t look crazy enough. PHARAH! Someone here to see you!” He called towards the back as he walked back the way he came leaving Angela waiting in the doorway unsure if she was supposed to follow.

Another person stood up from the group and walked to greet her. As they got closer Angela could see that this person was a tall dark skinned woman who walked with an air of confidence and determination the complete opposite of what Angela was feeling now. “I’m Sargent… sorry lieutenant Amari, still need to get used to that.” She said stopping in front of Angela.

Recovering from her shock Angela thought back to what she had seen in movies and snapped off an attempt at a salute, “Private Zeigler reporting. I was told to come find you, I’m to act as your new medic.” Angela couldn’t hide the fear in her voice while the imposing woman looked her up and down.

“You are? Who sent you?” The lieutenant asked with an inquisitive tone.

 _Fuck what was his name,_ “Ah Morrison? Yes Morrison sent me, something about you needing a medic and this being an ODST squad.”

The lieutenant’s face lit up. “You are? Great! I had no idea where I was going to find a medic for this. This way, I’m Fareeha by the way.” Angela quietly responded with her name as they walked towards the group.

\---

Morrison’s communicator buzzed as he walked away after giving Angela her instructions, _what does he want now?_ “What is it Jesse? I’m busy.”

“Yeah I realise that but a big guy named Winston is here looking for you, he brought some box thing on the back of a truck for you to look at.”

 _What is he talking about?_ “Alright keep him busy I’m on my way.”

Jessie’s description of Winston’s delivery wasn’t entirely accurate. While it did look like a strange shaped box it was in fact a pod, and ODST pod.

“You work quick.” Jack marvelled at the sleek black pod on the back of the flatbed truck.

“We’ve been accused of wasting tax payer’s money but never their time.” Winston laughed. “This is just the first batch for ground training.”

Jack hadn’t even begun to think about training yet, he was still focused on finding a platoon to train.

“I had a word with your man here.” Winston continued. “And he was telling me that you were struggling to outfit your unit with equipment, armour specifically. I know of some prototypes that are in need of large scale field testing, I could send some down for you to look at if you like.”

“That would be very helpful, thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure.” Winston said. “Excuse me for a moment.” He said as his communicator started to beep, leaving Jack and Jessie alone in front of the pod.

“So now we’re gunnie pigs for armour too?” Jessie asked. “What the fuck have you gotten yourself into?”

“Apologies gentlemen” Winston said upon his return, cutting off Jack’s response. “I’m needed back in London. I’ll be in touch soon when I’ve got you some armour. All the best!”

\---

“Alright listen up idiots.” Fareeha said to her team. Her fireteam barely looked up from their card game and didn’t seem to care about the new arrival standing next to their leader.

Seated on two beds with a table between them were five men and a woman. All wore the same navy blue uniform that Angela had only recently been given however none bore the medic’s patch.

“This is Angela Zeigler, our new medic.” There was a ripple of recognition as all eyes remained focused on their cards. “They take a bit of getting used to.” Fareeha whispered before sitting down on one of the two beds the team was using as seats.

“So what unit were you in before?” One member of the team asked, his eyes never leaving his cards as he placed another bet.

“Uhh… I wasn’t with a unit… I was off world.” Angela lied.

“Ahh, got ourselves a good Samaritan then.” Another laughed. “Out there doing good deeds in the colonies were you?”

“Uhh...  Yeah something like that.” Angela mumbled.

“So which world?” A third asked, the only woman in the group apart from Fareeha and Angela.

“Oh… umm I moved around a lot”

The group seemed satisfied and stopped their interrogation.

Fareeha it seemed had more questions. “How’d you find out about all this?”

“Oh. Morrison sort of just found me.” Angela figured that she should at least try to be truthful.

“Same with me.” Fareeha nodded. With a sigh she sat up and grabbed her coat. “I’m going to go see if can steal away some of the guys in second platoon.”

“Good luck.” The group murmured. “Try and get the big guy from Charlie, he owes me money.” One added. The rest of the group murmured that the same person also owed them money too.

“Hey aren’t you going to introduce me?” Angela whispered to Fareeha as she made to leave the group.

“You’ll work it out.” Fareeha laughed as she left.

\---

Fareeha felt somewhat bad for abandoning Angela like that, she seemed so small and defenceless, a rare sight in a trained solider. She put it up to the awkwardness of joining a unit that already knew each other and had already spent time fighting side by side. Although they seemed rude she suspected that her team was simply sizing the new arrival up. Their past experience with medics may also have had something to do with it. Of the past two medics that had been assigned to the squad one had been shot almost instantly during his first engagement and the second had received a beating for being a poker cheat.

She started with alpha squad on her quest to find another fire team of 6. Alpha had just received a new squad leader fresh out of the officers’ academy and from what she had heard he was not the best leader. They hadn’t been in combat yet but from the training they had done with him things did not look good.

She pulled the best troopers aside and told them about the plan. Although they seemed sceptical at first when they heard that Fareeha would be their squad leader they jumped at the idea.

“Oh… Ok I wasn’t expecting you to say yes. Grab your gear and move it over to barracks 31.” Fareeha said, surprised by their enthusiasm for such a dangerous posting.  

The assembled group smiled broadly at her before all rushing off to pack their gear, much to the confusion of their former squad members and the protest of their squad leader.

Not much had changed by the time she returned to her squad’s barracks. Her old fire team was still playing their card game however Angela had moved away from the group and was sitting on a spare bunk, staring into space.

“That there is Private Angela Ziegler, our new medic. Everyone else you know I’m sure.” She said to the new members. “We ship out to the training base in a week.”

“What do we do until then?” One asked as he dumped his gear on a spare bed.

Fareeha shrugged. “I’m sure they’ll deal you in if you have the cash.”

\---

With two days left before training was supposed to begin Jack had yet to find a second squad. He had managed to find himself a radio operator and a weapons team of four thanks to a canvas of the local bases but it still left him with 14 open spots. Both he and Jessie had exhausted their long list of contacts and suggested personnel files. The silver lining was that Amari’s squad was perfect, almost all of its members had seen combat in one way or another and all except for Ziegler were competent soldiers.

“Well shit.” Jessie sighed as he hung up his communicator after another rejection. “What now?”

“I don’t know.” Jack sighed. Training had yet to begin but he already felt drained. “Maybe I’ll give Winston a call, try and get some more files or an extension.”

“Fuck that. I am never reading another goddam personnel file for as long as I live. You know what fuck this.” Jessie declared as he got up and put his coat on. “I’m going down to the replacement depot. Maybe I’ll find someone dumb enough to join us.”

Jack considered himself lucky that he had never been put in the depot. Soldiers who had been wounded or became separated by leave or assignment were sent there until a new unit could be found for them. The depot was a halfway house for people who had no home to go to or were from off world.

The nearest depot was almost an hour away so while Jessie was gone Jack busied himself with paperwork and making calls to organise supplies and equipment.

 _He can’t be back already… and he doesn’t knock_ Jack thought as someone knocked at his office door.

“Apologies sir.” The nervous private said once he was allowed to enter. “I just finished talking with the armourer. It seems our order of simulation ammunition has been… well it’s not here, sir.”

“What…” Jack growled.

“Apparently there was a mix up at dispatch and it was sent… well honestly sir we have no idea.” The private said as he held his hands up and backed away from Jack’s growing anger.

“So what you’re saying is we don’t have any ammo to train with when we start in two days time.”

“We did receive our shipment of live ammunition.” The private said trying to blunt the blow slightly.

“Fine.” Jack sighed. “Did anything else not show up?”

“No sir. Everything else arrived as ordered. Winston’s armour prototypes will be arriving next week and in the mean time we have the standard issue combat armour. Oh and the refit of the Gibraltar is on schedule.”

\---

“Picking up or dropping off?” The secretary asked as Jessie stumbled out of the rain and into the replacement depot.

Jessie found himself in what seemed to be a reception area. A young woman sat behind a desk looking at him expectantly and slightly annoyed that he was dripping on her clean tiled floor. “Oh… picking up?” Jessie like Jack had never been to such a place before and he had yet to work out if what he was about to do was legal.

“Name?”

“Uhh… you mean mine?” he asked as he glanced down to the patch with his surname stitched to his Jacket.

The secretary rolled her eyes. “No, of the person you are here to collect.”

“Oh… about that.” He rested his arm on the counter and tried to be as charming as he could, looking deep into the woman’s eyes. “I was hoping to find 14 or so guys for a new unit I’m helping form.”

“Hmm.” The secretary hummed, sounding completely unimpressed. “Combat or non-combat?”

“Combat.”

The secretary typed a few things on her keyboard. “Specialties?”

“Pardon?”

“What specialties do you need?” She sighed. “Squad leaders, explosive experts, pilots…”

“Oh… uhh.” He fumbled around in his pockets for a scrap bit of paper he had written what he was looking for. “One squad leader, two fire team leaders, a medic and ten riflemen.” He felt somewhat dirty that he had created a shopping list of people that were likely going to die. “And a platoon second in command if you have one.” The sooner he could replace himself the better.

The secretary took a few moments as she did whatever she was doing on her computer. “Who is approving these assignments?”

“Uhh… lieutenant Commander Morrison, 1st ODST regiment.”

The secretary didn’t bat an eye at the mention of a unit that had only come to exist a week ago. “Ok then Captain I’ve organised all the paperwork for you and called the replacements, they should be here shortly. I couldn’t find a 2IC I’m afraid. If you’d like to take a seat?”

Jessie was slightly annoyed that he would be stuck helping Jack for a little longer but was pleased and somewhat confused by how easy it had been. He sat in the entrance way with his non-regulation cowboy hat covering his face while attempting to catch up on some sleep until he heard a number of people enter the room.

“Sir!” The fourteen soldiers before him snapped off a salute as he rose from his seat.

“The troops you requested.” The secretary piped up from behind them.

“Huh…” Jessie mumbled. The ten men and four women before him looked fresh out of boot camp. To him it looked like none had seen anything that even remotely resembled combat. “When’d you get outa boot?” He asked the nearest.

“Four weeks sir.”

“And you?” Jessie asked the next.

“Two sir!”

“This aint gunna work.” He mumbled. “You got any veterans back there?” He asked the secretary.

“I’m afraid not sir. They get snapped up pretty quick around here. If you come back in a week or two we might have some.”

“Fuck it." Jessie mumbled to himself.  "Alright listen up. Name’s McCree. Ya’ll been selected to form part of a new unit. Report to the Thornhill training base bright an early Monday. Any questions?”

Cautiously one trooper at the far end of the line raised her hand.

“What is it corporal?”

“Two things… what unit are we joining and second how are we supposed to get there? Sir.”

Jessie conceded that they were good questions. “To the first I say you’ll find out on Monday and to the second…” He shrugged. “Think of it as the first part of your training. See you all on Monday!”

He left his new recruits standing stunned and confused in the depot as he walked back out into the rain. “I found you a bravo squad.” He spoke into his communicator, leaving Jack a message.

\---

Jack was less than pleased when he read the personnel files of his new bravo squad members. “So this is all you could find?” He said as he flicked though the extremely thin files.

“Hey this was last minute.” Jessie said in his defence.

Jack frowned as he looked between the files of his two squads. “I suppose we’ll have to make do.” He sighed. “We’ll have to shuffle them up so there’s a mix of veterans in each squad, hopefully their experience will rub off on the rookies.”


	4. Training Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last of the pre-written chapters.

Jack was starting to regret ordering his new platoon to assemble on the parade ground of the Thornhill training base. It was bitterly cold and despite their thick rain Jackets he could see the wet and the cold was starting to get to his troops. Their gear, neatly packed in a duffle bag at their feet while they stood at attention was likely more water than anything else at this point.

The Scottish weather had been kind to Jack and the Royal Engineers as they repaired and renovated the base over the previous week. Apart from the newly constructed barracks an armoury, landing pad, firing range and assault course had all been built by the dedicated members of the engineers. It had seemed that the tales of the engineers were true; there was not a man in the navy who could honestly say a bad word against them.

“So… how do we start this thing?” Jessie asked. They had been standing beneath their own umbrellas for some time, watching the troopers arrive on busses and cars.

“I suppose I should introduce myself.” Jack said quietly. “Alright listen up!” He shouted above the rain. “For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Lt Commander Morrison and I have been selected to lead this new unit. I have a vision of what I want this unit to become, it will become the deadliest fighting force the navy has ever seen. We will be the best and we will fight tooth and nail to maintain that standing among the other units. The household Guards, the Queen’s Own Rifles, the Light Brigade and the ANZACs. You all know of these units and the valiant battles they have fought. We do not have the luxury of history to back our claim of greatness. From this day forward we are forging history for our unit and each day must be the best it can be. This is why we will spend the next weeks training harder than any other unit.  You must forget what they taught you in boot, this is a new breed of fighting and the old ways simply won’t cut it.” Jack finally took a break from his pacing. He had planned his speech out in his head but he was wishing he had written it down. “If you don’t think you’re up to it then leave now, I don’t want dead weight in my unit.” He paused again for dramatic effect. In all his years soldiering he had seen such a question asked many times, he wondered if anyone ever left when asked. “If I think you are falling behind you will be cut, am I understood?”

“Sir, yes sir!” Came the resounding reply.

“Good. I won’t lie to you, what we are planning to do has never been done and for good reason. It’s dangerous an I expect some of you won’t live though our first deployment. But that is why we must train and be the best, because we will be fighting the battles no one else will. Where the fighting is hardest and the blood thickest we will be the ones sent in to fight. When a position becomes untenable and the line is at risk, it will be us to plug the gap and hold. When all seems hopeless and our comrades face total annihilation we will fall from the heavens aboard our chariots of flame and fight with a furiosity never before seen by our enemies. Make no mistake ladies and gentlemen, each time we go into battle we will be jumping feet first into hell itself.” With his speech finished and his platoon suitably hyped up he turned to Jessie and gave him a nod to take over.

“My name is Captain McCree. You have 2 minutes to stow your gear in the barracks and assemble in your squads outside the armoury. Alpha you’re in hut 1, Bravo 2, weapons and command are in 3. Fall out!”

\---

If someone had asked her a two days ago if she still wanted to be an ODST Fareeha would have said no. She had been livid when Jack called her and announced that he was taking half of her squad and replacing them with raw recruits. She’d had no say in who would stay with her and who would go however it seemed as she looked over at bravo that he had taken her suggestion and named her friend since bootcamp; James Dowry as squad leader, quite the jump from a corporal to a lieutenant in a single promotion. She only hoped for his sake that she hadn’t over estimated his abilities.

Following the stirring speech Fareeha’s opinion of Jack had changed. While she hadn’t forgiven him for stealing half her squad and replacing it with rookies she was impressed with his drive and ambition. She had been offered a transfer into the Light Brigade after Lion’s Head but had turned it down as her meeting with her potential commanding officer made it seem that he was offering the job to Ana Amari’s daughter and not to Sargent Fareeha Amari. She hoped that Jack was saying that merit and success would be a result of hard work and not birth right.  

Fareeha ran with her squad in tow from the parade ground towards hut number 1. During the speech Fareeha decided that if the ODSTs were going to be the best unit in the navy then alpha squad was going to be the best within that unit. She was the first into the hut and saw the door labelled SL right away. It was a small room with a single bed, a foot locker and a fold down table. Built to the exact same size and specifications of the junior officer’s quarters on every navy ship. With no time to unpack she threw her soaked bag inside and shut the door. The hut was like the barracks at her old base, a long building with beds along each wall. However much to Fareeha’s annoyance the bathroom was directly oppoisite her quarters.

The rest of her squad was right behind her, they too quickly found a free bed and dropped their bag beside it before assembling into two lines by the door, waiting for the order to move out. Fareeha counted her squad quickly, and found it to be one short. She was about to recount when Angela burst though the door, noticeably out of breath and red faced unlike her squad mates. Although they didn’t say anything Fareeha could feel their judgment as they watched her enter. The room was silent except for the sounds of Angela’s wet boots hitting the floor as she ran to the far end of the room, dumped her bag and ran back, falling into the back of the line. Had they not been in a rush Fareeha would have told her that as the medic she was supposed to be at the front by the squad leader’s side.

“lets go!”

\---

Angela knew she had fucked up without being told. She had been noticeably slower getting to the hut and she knew it was her fault that her squad had been last to form up outside the armoury. At least it had stopped raining.

“Alright!” Jessie yelled, choosing to ignore alpha’s late arrival. “In fire teams you will collect your weapons and armour. A couple of things to note. This armour is only temporary until we receive our purpose build armour. Second, you will all be receiving a combat load out including a weapon and live ammunition, so don’t go shooting yourselves. And finally you will wear your full combat gear at all times when outside of your huts, that includes meals and training. Bravo one you’re up first.”

The armoury wasn’t so much a building but a large shed. At the back of the space was what could have been mistaken as a bank, a teller behind glass except in this case the glass was a wire mesh, the teller was a large grumpy looking man and there were a multitude of guns hanging behind him.

Angela paid close attention to how the other troopers were putting on their gear and checking their weapons. She had never worn armour let alone fire a weapon, they didn’t teach that in medical school. What concerned her most however was the way that even the veterans were struggling to comfortably carry their gear, as if it was heavier than they were used to. She knew that if the real soldiers were struggling then she would be in trouble.

She looked over at bravo’s medic, the heavy pack on his back along with all the other equipment he was carrying had her worried.

“Ziegler!” Fareeha called from across the way. “We’re up.” She nodded to the cage.

Still somewhat stunned Angela followed her towards the armorer.

“Stand on the pad.” A gruff voice said from a speaker next to her.

Fareeha was already standing on one of the pads so she took the one next to her.

“Stand still.” A blue light washed over her before turning into a beam that roamed all over her body, she knew this to be a body scanner but for what purpose she did not know. “Step forward to the window.” The voice ordered.

Angela did as she was told and followed Fareeha to the window. She watched as her leader gave her ID number and received her combat gear, sidearm, her weapon of choice and a lot of ammunition.

When it was her turn up at the window Angela froze. When asked for her ID she realised she didn’t know it, luckily she managed to stammer out her name which allowed the armour to find her file.

“You’re a medic, correct?”

“Yes.” She replied.

The armour handed over her armour and a pack with a red cross stitched on the back, likely full of medical supplies judging by its weight. The armour was standard issue for all marines and infantry. It consisted of an open faced helmet, a chest plate and various pads such as knee and elbow. While each unit was given the same gear each had its own way of improving or adapting it. The 108th infantry forwent the standard green fatigues instead they wore navy blue, the 18th shock battalion didn’t wear the armoured plate intended for their back as a sign of courage and some ANZAC companies forwent the armour entirely and just used the webbing to hold equipment. 

Next the armorer slid across a pistol and its ammunition. “Weapon?” He asked.

Again Angela froze. She glanced over to Fareeha who was almost done putting on her gear. “Uhh… it’s been a while…”

Fareeha nodded and came over to join her at the window. “Get her an M7.” She said to the armour who nodded in understanding and wandered out the back. “You ever use one before?” She asked. Angela shook her head. “I suppose you didn’t need one out in the colonies did you… It’s a good weapon. Its light but the recoil isn’t too bad, just fire in burst and you’ll manage.” She said before leaving to join the rest of the squad.

The armour returned and handed over what Angela assumed was an M7. It was smaller than what she had seen her fellow squad mates take but she was thankful for how light both it and its ammunition was. Thanks to her observation skills she was able to get her armour on quickly and join her squad out front without too much delay.

“Zeigler, your webbing is on backwards.” A member of her squad said when she re-joined the group. A quiet chuckle reverberated throughout the group as they watched her struggle to fix her gear. Eventually the laughter stopped, they had remembered that this was the person who was supposed to save them if they got shot.

\---

“Now that we’re all here.” Jack mumbled half to himself and half to Jessie. “I have been given 6 weeks to train you starting today. The program will be as follows; until the HMS Gibraltar is ready we will be training both physically and psychologically for the trials to come. I’ve been assured that a simulator will be made available to us to practice using the drop pods before we strap you into the real thing. Once the Gibraltar is ready we will conduct three jumps; a solo jump, a squad jump and finally a simulated combat jump consisting of the entire platoon. While I would like to give you more training these pods are expensive and I’ve been told to keep costs down.” Originally it had been one jump but after a series of shouting matches between Jack and the accountants he managed to get them to agree to three. “As you may have noticed you have been issued a larger load of ammunition and supplies than you are used to. This will be the amount you drop in with as due to the expected nature of our missions resupply may be difficult. Also let me remind you that everything you are carrying is live, I cannot stress this enough. Finally as McCree told you earlier, you will wear your combat gear whenever you are not in your huts, that includes carrying your weapon at all times. I want you to image your hut as the ship and everything around it as a combat zone.”

“So what now?” McCree whispered. “Should we let them unpack their gear?”

Jack shook his head. “Let’s see what kind of assault course the engineers have cooked up for us.”

\---

If there was one thing Fareeha was good at, it was PT. she kept herself fit like every other solider but she had always held herself to a higher standard. Assault courses were designed to be tough but doing it in a heavier than normal combat load was even making her struggle.

She was also a great believer of leading from the front. She would arrive at an obstacle first and would help each member of her team though it before doing it herself then overtaking her squad to reach the next obstacle first. Her squad were almost as fit as her and they too were struggling to get through it. Fareeha could already see Jack’s mind at work, promoting team building from day one, she was impressed. Another thing she noticed was that Angela Zeigler, her medic was consistently the slowest member of her squad and was always last to get through an obstacle and would often require more help than most to complete it. Her slow speed coupled with Fareeha’s insistence that that squad complete each obstacle as a team before continuing meant that alpha finished behind weapons and bravo squads despite it not being a race.

“I expected more from you.” Jack said sternly as he stood over the out of breath squad once they had completed the course. Normally a squad would be pissed if someone said that following such a difficult course but they had all watch him complete the course ahead of them. “Form up in the square, we’re heading out in 5.”

Begrudgingly the squad got to their feet and begun to wander over to the square any idea of remaining in formation was gone, replaced with frustration. During their final minutes of the assault course they had seen the other members of the platoon taking a break, a break they might have enjoyed had it not been for the slowest person in the unit; Zeigler.

“Colonies make you soft huh, Doc?” Fareeha overheard one mutter under her breath before shouldering the frail medic out of the way. The shove which would have left any other person standing sent Angela into the mud much to the amusement of the rest of the squad.

“Here” Fareeha offered her hand to the fallen medic.

“Thanks.” Angela mumbled as she struggled to her feet. She took a moment to fix her gear before wandering somewhat dazed in the same direction as the group.

Once their five minutes were up Jack informed them that they would be going on a hike to Stirling Castle and back a distance of almost 30km and were expected to be back within 4 hours. Each element would conduct the hike separately, meaning that each fire team would be going it alone without their squad leaders. They were allowed to study a map for two minutes before departing.

“Ready Ziegler?” Fareeha asked as she checked her straps and retied her boots.

“As I’ll ever be.”

\---

Despite her terrible land navigation skills Angela knew they were making poor time. Angela became stuck in the mud multiple times and would often require assistance climbing over the low walls that separated the many fields they were trudging though.

“We need to move faster, we are falling behind.” Fareeha said as they took another break for Angela’s benefit.

“I can’t do this.” She sobbed.

Fareeha was taken aback when she heard the medic burst into tears. She had seen soldiers cry but not since her basic training had she seen one cry because something was too physically tough for them, basic training taught troopers to be stronger than that. “We’re almost at the road, it will be easier then. This is just the hard bit.” She took Angela’s hand and pulled her onto her feet. “Come on.”

\---

Jack had expected whatever group Angela was in to arrive late however he was still disappointed when it happened. They were over an hour late and while Fareeha looked tired but still capable of more Angela looked utterly wreaked. “Not good enough Ziegler.” He said as he past her. “Apologies for giving you such a burden Amari, I know what you are capable of so don’t think this impacts you.”

“If I might have a word, sir?” Fareeha jogged after him, leaving the exhausted medic behind. “Where did you find her? She’s clearly not cut out for this.”

“What did she say when you asked her?”

“That she was out in the colonies helping the needy.”

“The needy?” Jack laughed, catching Fareeha off guard. “Listen.” He said turning to her. “It doesn’t matter where she’s from.”

“Well are you going to drop her?”

“No.” Jack said sternly “She leaves here a graduate or in a body bag.”

“Sir if I may, did you not mean what you said this morning about being the best?”

“I did.” He nodded. “I’ll drop anyone not pulling their weight, anyone but her.” Jack made it clear with his stare that this was not up for debate and that the conversation was over.

\---

The following day was much the same as the first. The platoon ran the assault course in the morning. Alpha once again was the slowest due to Angela’s slow pace and as punishment was forced to run it again. This earned Angela many harsh words and the occasional shove as they readied at the start for their second attempt.

Fareeha had heard the rumblings about Angela’s performance and the questions raised about why she hadn’t been dropped from the unit. Fareeha said nothing, what could she say except that Jack wouldn’t be dropping her.

After their second run though the assault course the squad was sent to the shooting range. Their exhaustion would make it difficult to shoot accurately and Jack wanted them to get used to it.

Fareeha was an accomplished marksman so after firing off a few rounds she took to observing her squad. She was pleased with how well her squad was doing until she reached Angela’s target.

At first she though Angela had just been woefully inaccurate but upon closer inspection Fareeha realised that Angela had yet to fire a shot.

“Christ Ziegler.” She muttered as she took the weapon form the medic’s hands. “What the fuck are you doing. Have you forgotten how to use a fucking gun?”

“I’ve… I’ve never shot one of these.” She stuttered, close to tears.

Fareeha took a moment to collect and bottle up her rage, she wasn’t going to have an outburst in front of the rest of her squad. “Alright cease fire!” She yelled, bringing a swift end to the noise. “Head on back for lunch.”

With a sigh of relief the squad gathered up their things. Angela made to leave but a strong hand clamped down on her shoulder.

“Not you.” Fareeha growled. She loaded Angela’s weapon for her before handing it back. “You’re not leaving until I’ve seen that you can at least shoot.”

From the get go Fareeha could tell Angela had never held a weapon before in her life. Her stance was all wrong, she shook with fear and when she finally worked up the courage to pull the trigger she yelped in surprise. The two rounds she fired had missed completely, hitting the dirt behind the target.

“Again” Fareeha said sternly. She refused to move until the full magazine had been fired down range, of which only two made it onto the paper target. “Words escape me.” She muttered as she watched Angela’s poor attempt to reload the weapon, her progress hampered by her shaking hands and crying. “Give me that.” She growled as she snatched away the weapon. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” She asked.

Angela offered up no response and simply stared at her feet, the occasional teardrop falling to land on the tip of her boot.

“Your sidearm next.”

Hesitantly Angela withdrew her sidearm. She struggled to load this too.

“Insert the magazine.” Fareeha spoke slowly, barely keeping her rage in check. “Rack the slide.” She bit her lip to stop her from shouting when Angela at first struggled with such a simple task. “Now the safety. Ok now you’re ready to fire.”

Angela’s accuracy was much the same as before, only scoring a few additional hits.

“It’s Angela isn’t it?” Fareeha asked once Angela had finished missing the target.

“Yes.” The medic replied quietly.

“Angela, how the fuck did you pass basic? Seriously what the fuck are you doing here?”

“Morrison said he needed a medic.” She replied quietly. “I volunteered.”

Fareeha just shook her head and sighed. “Start with the pistol again.”

\---

Morrison was waiting for the pair when they returned from the shooting range. “Amari, I need a private word with Zeigler here.” He said sternly. Fareeha saluted before leaving to find the rest of her squad. “I found alpha another medic.” He said once Fareeha was gone.

“You mean I can go?” Angela asked with a hint of hope.

Jack shook his head. “No chance. I just wanted you to know that when one of your squad mates frags you or you decide to pack it in.” He nodded pointedly to her sidearm. “That they’ll be in good hands.” He smirked before moving past her, his shoulder bumping her as he did.

“Why are you doing this?” Angela quietly sobbed.

Jack spun around in an instant, grabbing the front of Angela’s armour and getting up in her face. “Because I’ve met your kind before.” He snarled. “I know what you did, what you put your subjects though and if it was anyway near as bad as what I endured then this barely constitutes a punishment.” He shoved her violently to the ground, her helmet the only thing saving her from cracking her skull. “You people are monsters thinking you can play god with other people’s bodies. To tear them apart only to put them back together just to see if you could.”

“I didn’t know what they were doing, I swear.” Angela sobbed. “I tried to put a stop to it!”

“Tell that to the ashes.” Jack spat. “Tell that to all the people that died trying to fix what you did.” Jack stood towering over the sobbing medic. “We have a live fire training exercise tomorrow night. I doubt you’ll live through it.”

\---

Fareeha was in her quarters cleaning her weapon when she saw Angela limp into the barracks. Jack had given them the afternoon off to rest. The first two days of training had been a shock to everybody’s system and no one was without some ache or pain so it was no surprise to her to see Angela is such a state.

“Zeigler!” She called out as the blond walked past. “Come here a moment.”

“Yes?”

Fareeha ignored the improper greeting. Some parts of the navy were extremely strict on protocol and the respect expected to be shown when speaking to a superior, especially between a grunt and a commissioned officer. “Do you have a moment? Sit down, please.” She patted the top of her closed footlocker. “Are you injured?” She was concerned when Angela said nothing instead she shook her head as her eyes remained fixed on her boots. She let out a frustrated sigh; this was no way for a soldier to behave. “Take off your boots.” She ordered.

Angela looked up at her, blue eyes searching for an explanation.

Fareeha made it clear with her serious expression that there would be consequences if she refused. She watched as reluctantly Angela took off her combat boots, wincing and fighting back tears as she did.

“This doesn’t look good.” Fareeha murmured as she inspected the swollen and bleeding blisters on Angela’s feet. Perhaps worst still was the fact that both her socks and her feet were damp. “Your feet shouldn’t be this wet.” She frowned. “Did you do up your boots correctly?”

“I think so.” Angela replied timidly.

“Show me.” Fareeha was unimpressed with what she saw. “That’s not how you were shown in basic.” She sighed when she had seen enough. “Zeigler be honest with me here. Did you pass basic training?”

“I can’t say.” Angela said quietly.

Fareeha frowned. “What do you mean you can’t say? Why not?”

“I can’t tell you that either.” Fareeha could see Angela’s expression had changed from that of embarrassment to one of fear.

“Ok.” Fareeha sighed. “Let me show you how to do your boots.” Fareeha went slowly, step by step teaching the medic how to properly do up her boots so that mud and water couldn’t seep in. “You know how to treat blisters I hope.” She said once they were done to which Angela nodded. “Good, go do that then and make sure you put on clean, dry socks.”

“I don’t have any.” Angela said quietly.

Fareeha frowned in what was becoming somewhat of a habit whenever she was around the medic. “You should though… how many pairs do you have?”

“Two.”

“Two? You need five minimum.” Fareeha said standing up and going to her standing locker. While her footlocker held all of her regulation equipment as a commissioned officer she was entitled to keep a wall locker for private items. Most officers used it to keep alcohol, food or other such luxuries. Fareeha never had much need for that so hers contained the extra gear she had accrued over the years. “Take these.” She said handing Angela two pairs of socks. “I’ll have a chat with the armorer about getting you some more. Make sure to keep your feet dry.”

“Thank you.” Angela said quietly as she stood up and begun to leave.

Fareeha still felt worried as she watched her medic leave her cramped quarters. “Angela.” She said, causing her to stop. “I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier, it was rude and unprofessional of me.”

The blond simply nodded before turning back to her slow walk to the far end of the barracks were her bed lie.

\---  
“I just got word that everything is ready for tomorrow night.” McCree said as Jack stepped into their shared quarters. “It’s a bit far away don’t you think?” he asked as he looked over a map.

The platoon would be marching to Loch Ard, 18kms away. Once they got there they would be simulating an assault on a fortified position, the defenders in this case would be droids with stun weapons.

“Nothing wrong with a night march. The weather is supposed to be nice for once.” Jack said as he took off his armour and begun to clean it. “Any word on the new armour?”

“Just finished talking with logistics. It’s getting dropped off tonight, they’re flying it in from Germany as we speak.”

Jack nodded as he thought of a plan. Once his armour was cleaned he put it aside and lay back on his bed. “I’m going to get some shut eye, wake me when it’s almost here.”

When the time came Jack felt fresh and relaxed as he walked across the deserted parade ground in the dead of night. He had just finished talking with a disgruntled armourer who agreed to open up so his platoon could get their new armour. All that was left to do was wake his troops.

During his training his instructors had preferred the bugle or drum to rouse the troops however after a night of drinking and trading stories with an old instructor buddy he had been let in on another method. When he let the armourer in on his plan he had been more than willing to hand over some training flash bangs. These grenades were designed to disorientate and blind a room’s occupants prior to a breach, while these were noticeably reduced in strength Jack figured they would do the job.

“Sir!” The troopers on duty outside the two huts that housed Alpha and Bravo saluted as Jack approached, he had almost forgotten that he had insisted that a guard be outside each hut during the night.

“I guess you’re the lucky ones tonight.” Jack smirked. “Best get to the parade ground. Your comrades will be joining you shortly.”

The troopers nodded and jogged off.

As quietly as he could he opened the doors of the two huts. Then he walked down the line, lobbing two grenades in each of the huts before turning to watch the chaos unfold.

\---

Fareeha had been having a rather pleasant dream prior to her rude awakening. She had dreamt that she had been shot however it didn’t scare her as beside her as she lay bleeding out in the dirt of a distant planet sat an angel, with wings of pure white and a halo of gold. The angel’s touch had soothed her wounds and despite her injuries she felt safe.

However her dream was a distant memory as she sprung into action, barking orders while pulling on her gear.

“Parade square! Form up in the parade square for inspection!” Came a shout from outside.

“You heard the man, parade square!” She yelled as she affixed her helmet and grabbed her rifle.

With her own gear on she scanned the room to see if anyone needed her help. Her eyes instinctively searched out Angela and sure enough the medic was still struggling with her plate armour. She had made the rookie mistake of separating the front and back halves and with her shaking hands she couldn’t reattach the two. The harder she tried the more she panicked, worsening the situation.

“Look at me.” Fareeha said as she took Angela’s face and forced her to look her in the eyes. “Take a breath.” She said softly despite the noise around them.

Angela did as she was told and took a deep calming breath.

“Good.” She said with a hint of a smile. “What are you trying to do?”

“My… my plate.” Angela stammered.

“There’s no rush.” Fareeha said as she took a step back. “Take your time.”

Angela’s hands still shook but she managed to connect the two pieces and secure her armour.

“You’ll need this.” Fareeha said as she handed over Angela’s helmet in one hand and her weapon in the other. “Ready?” she asked once Angela had secured her helmet.

“Good, come on.” She said, breaking into a jog towards the parade ground with Angela in tow.

For once alpha was the first squad to be fully formed up on the parade squad, a small moment of redemption for the squad. Once everyone was formed up Jack begun to speak.

“Apologies for the rude awakening.” He smirked. “But our new armour just arrived and I know you have been dying to get your hands on it.” The platoon was silent however the was feeling of excitement that rippled through it.

Fareeha quickly glanced to her left. Her position as squad leader had her out in front of her squad so she could see very little but she could see Angela. Her hands still shook but she did seem excited.

“But before I do there are some things about this new battle dress that you need to know.” Jack said as he pulled out a small booklet. “The Mark one Battle Dress Uniform or BDU is a personal suit of combat armour designed for the soldiers of operation Pegasus, that’s us. The ODST BDU is designed to provide the wearer with protection in combat environments as well provide resistance to expected environmental hazards. Each BDU consists of three parts; the body suit which acts as an inner layer, the outer armoured plates and the helmet. The suit when properly worn is able to regulate temperature and provide life support for 15minutes in a vacuum.”

“What he’s trying to say is to read the fucking manual” McCree butted in as Jack turned the page.

“Exactly.” Jack said sounding somewhat annoyed. “Alpha seeing as for once you got here first, you can get geared up first.”

\---                                                                                                                                                         

Unlike when they had first been issued gear the squad was directed to a changing room. Along the far wall was a series of lockers each baring a name of a platoon member.

“These are made to fit suits.” The armour explained. “So make sure you open the right locker.”

Angela found her locker to the right of the door. They had been ordered alphabetically and across the gap she could see Fareeha’s. Inside her locker was a helmet, the inner suit, armoured pieces and a backpack. Unsure what to do she glanced around the room, seeing that everyone was stripping down she did the same.

The suit fit snugly yet was surprisingly unrestrictive despite the armoured plates that attached to her front, arms, shoulders, legs and back. She left her helmet to the side and begun examining her rucksack. It was pre-packed with medical supplies and ammunition all neatly labelled, far more organised than her old one that now lay at the bottom of the locker. One thing did perplex her, there were no straps.

“Fareeha?... I mean lieutenant?”

“Yes Private?” Fareeha responded, seeming to not care about Angela’s lapse in protocol.

“Uhh… how do I wear this?” She asked, holding up the rucksack.

“It’s magnetic.” Fareeha smiled. “Turn around.”

Angela did as she was told. Soon she felt a sudden weight attach to her back however thanks to the suit design the load was spread evenly across her body.

“Alright, listen up!” Fareeha shouted to the room. “When we walk out there I want us to look professional. These suits are badass so I want us to look the part when we walk past the rest of the platoon.”

“Yes sir!” The room responded unison.

Angela felt herself brimming with pride as she walked out of the armoury next to Fareeha, at the head of their squad. She could hear the other members of the platoon whispering to each other in awe of the new equipment.

“Looking good alpha.” Jack said proudly when the squad returned to their original position on the parade square. “Alright the rest of you go get changed.” He ordered. “Alpha, we’ll join you at the assault course when we’re ready.” He said before jogging off to change.

As soon as Jack was out of earshot the squad let out a collective groan. It was 3 am and the last thing they wanted to be doing was running the assault course.

“Ahh fuck… Guys?!” A voice emerged from the centre of the squad as they meandered over to the course.

“What is it corporal?” Fareeha asked as she approached the disorientated soldier. Angela followed close behind.

“I can’t see.” The soldier said awkwardly.

“You mean you’re blind?” Angela piped up, quickly running possible diagnoses though her head.

“No I can see… but my visor, it turned into a map or something.”

“it can do that?” A soldier behind Angela mumbled to his friend.

“Anyone got their manual?” Fareeha sighed.

“It’s the nav button on your wrist panel.” Another soldier said as he flicked though the book. “Nav open and closes your map. The arrow key zooms in and out.

“Well cant fucking see so how am I supposed to know which button to press?” The blinded corporal yelled in frustration.

A soldier next to him pressed it on his behalf before promptly hitting him over the head for being stupid.  

\---

Despite their early start to the day Jack had no intention of giving his troops a break. After the early morning run though of the assault course, or in alpha’s case two run throughs. He marched the whole platoon in formation down to a nearby farm to practice using their new armour with a bit of field navigation thrown in for good measure.

He was extremely satisfied with the armour Winston had acquired for time. Beyond the improved physical protection it provided the intergraded night vision, maps and radios would be a huge boost to his platoon’s situational awareness.  

When they returned later that evening even he was feeling tired. He gave his platoon an hour to rest and read up on their new suits while he did some last minute changes to tonight’s training operation.

“Who’s the closest air wing?” Jack asked Lucio, his radio operator.

“The 19th reservist.” Lucio said after a quick flip though his notes.

“Fucking reservists.” McCree mumbled. “Good luck getting anything from them.”

“Give them a call anyway, see if you can’t get a couple of pelicans down here. An air assault is probably more likely than a standard land assault.”

Jack could only hear half of the conversation between Lucio and whoever at the 19th was in the ops room that night. After a prolonged and frustrating conversation Lucio sighed heavily. “I could only get one for the drop but we can have two for the pickup.”

“Looks like someone is walking.” Jack laughed.

\---

With their hour of rest up Fareeha and the rest of the leadership were assembled around a map laid out on the briefing room table.

“Tonight we will be conducting an airborne assault on an enemy compound.” Jack explained. He went through all the stages of the operation, from the landing, movement from the LZ to the assault points and finally to which building each squad would be tasked with clearing. “Now we’ve only been given on pelican for the actual assault so one squad is going to have to march there and secure the landing site for the rest of us.”

“So do we draw straws?” The bravo squad leader asked.

“And leave it up to fate?” McCree laughed. “Fastest team though the first half of the assault course gets to take the bird with command.”

Fareeha’s two fire team leaders let out a collective groan while the other squad’s leadership laughed at their misfortune.

“What about weapons?” the weapon squad leader asked.

“Uhh…shit, sorry weapons looks like you’ll be walking too I’m afraid.” Jack said, somewhat embarrassed that he had forgotten all about them.

Weapons squad had become the middle child the platoon. Bravo squad was excelling in comparison to alpha’s lacklustre performance on account of their medic and as such the middle of the road weapons squad garnered no praise or condemnation. The four man squad’s role was to provide the platoon with extra fire support in the form of a two man sniper team and a two man medium machinegun team. The squad was led by Sargent Améile Lacroix a former French Foreign Legionary until the unit was disbanded a year ago by the navy board on suspicion that the legionary was planning a coup.

As expected alpha did not finish the assault course first. Although she tried her hardest Angela simply couldn’t keep up with the rest of her squad. When it came down to the final obstacle, a simple climb up a rope ladder Angela fell falling flat on her back much to the amusement of bravo squad who had slowed their own pace to taunt her. Nobody came to her aid and no one cared when she finally made it to the top.

“Call us when you’ve secured the LZ.” Jack shouted as alpha and weapons begun the 18km march to the training site.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all,
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter, sorry about the wait.   
> I went back and fixed a few things in the previous chapters. Mainly making sure that the numbers of the troops made sense. Just for clarity's sake ill remind you that each squad is 14 troops all told, 2 fire-teams of 6 and then the leader plus a medic. Also i changed the unit designation form the 1st odst regiment to the 1st odst division, not that important.


	5. Night fighting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to post something to prove that I hadn't forgotten about this.

Alpha squad marched quietly down the dark country lane out of their base towards the combat training site. They had left the confines of their base an hour ago and since then no one had said a word. It had begun to rain lightly as they marched, their combat dress shielded them from the rain, hopefully the cold wouldn’t seep in. The sun had long since set and the once beautiful rolling hills of farmland and countryside become cold, damp and uninviting.

They marched in fire teams. Alpha one under Sargent Krakow led the unit, behind them the command element, Sargent Webster leading Alpha two followed finally by Sargent Lacroix and her weapons team.

Krakow set a steady unchanging pace as they followed the dark and winding roads towards their destination. A slow beat of combat boots on pavement and the sound of shifting equipment was the soundtrack that drowned out the light rain.

They passed though the town of Thornhill soon after leaving the base. The town was little more than a short shopping street with a dozen houses surrounding it, one of the few small villages that had yet to succumb to the weight of progress and the mega cities that came with it. Most of the people who lived here were farmers, a dying profession. Increasingly fathers were finding that their sons would rather work at the nearby Sterling ship yard building mining barges and the occasional cruiser rather than take up the family trade. Soon all food production would be replaced with machines like most industries.

Fareeha’s radio cracked to life as they approached the dull yellow light of the sleepy village.

“Movement up ahead.” Krakow reported. The column stopped in its tracks, the troopers dropping on to a knee, their weapons were half hardly brought up to scan the barren muddy fields.

Krakow was one of Morrison’s new recruits and although suspicious at first Fareeha had warmed to the man and his abilities despite his lack of combat experience. The tall broad shouldered Estonian formed the backbone of alpha one and he was instantly recognisable as someone that could be relied upon in the chaos of combat. Despite this, in the interest of getting more experience and training Fareeha had ordered the squad to assume that everything beyond the training base was hostile territory.

Fareeha was just about to key her mic to ask for a report when once more her radio burst into life.

“Two men exiting the pub at the northwest corner of the intersection.”

Fareeha checked her watch and laughed quietly to herself. “The pub is closing for the night. Continue on into town.”

The column set off once more, resuming their steady pace.

The two drunks had paused outside the pub for a smoke and were still there when the men and women of the first ODST division arrived in their sleepy hollow. They stared on dumbly as the first element marched past, their mat-black helmets briefly inspecting the two men before turning back towards their path.

Fareeha peeled off from the column and approached the two men with her medic in tow. “Evening gentlemen” she said as she changed her visor from black to clear.

The taller and older of the two men made an attempt at a drunken salute, the other who may well have been his son simple stared at the two fierce looking soldiers before him.

“It’s a bit cold don’t you think? Why don’t I have some of my men escort you home, I’d hate for you to slip and fall in the dark and damp.”

“Thankyou lieutenant but I don’t…” the older man stumbled into Angela’s arms, catching her off guard and almost sending them sprawling onto the pavement.

Alpha two was now walking past the pub so Fareeha selected two of her former comrades to escort the two drunks home, then catch up to the unit.

With the drunks and their escort sent on their way Fareeha re-joined the column behind her second fire-team. They had only just left the town by the time the two slightly out of breath escorts returned to their spots with their unit, their charges likely already sound asleep in their warm beds.

As they marched Fareeha slowly begin to notice the sound of boot steps behind her fading. A quick glance behind her proved her suspicion, weapons team was falling behind. She didn’t blame them for it however. As well as a two man sniper team weapons also contained a medium machinegun team and despite its name it was a heavy piece of equipment. On top of their normal equipment the two gunners needed to carry the weapon, spare barrels and its ammunition. All told they carried almost twice the standard kit, which was already heavier than a standard marine’s kit.

“Alpha one hold up. Let’s take a breather and let weapons catch up.” Fareeha could practically see the relief in the soldiers in front of her as they instantly relaxed.

The troopers wandered off the road towards the low wall that formed the boundary of a farmer’s field. Some chose to sit on the wall, others on the ground to rest against it.

Fareeha sat on the ground, resting against a tree. She removed her helmet and set it beside her before fishing out a map and a light from her kit. Although her new armour had a detailed map and positioning system she still liked to be able to do it by hand. She glanced up when a pair of legs walked in front of her, Angela’s as she went to sit at arm’s length from her.

“How are your feet?” she asked as Angela removed her helmet.

“They’re fine.” Angela replied quietly. “These boots are a little different but I think I worked them out.”

Fareeha glanced up and shone her light onto Angela’s boots. She was pleased to see that despite the new design Angela had managed to secure them correctly. “Good” she said as she went back to her map. “Only another hour to the training ground. From there it’s only a few minutes to the landing zone.” As she said this weapons caught up. When her eyes met Lacroix’s the sergeant nodded in thanks as the rest of her team took a much needed break. Fareeha could see that they had distributed the heavy ammunition between themselves but it hadn’t been enough to keep the gunners on pace with everyone else.

“Have you ever been on one of these exercises before?” Fareeha asked, turning back to her medic.

“No.”

Fareeha nodded, things were starting to make sense in her head. The fact that Angela hadn’t been on a live fire exercise was proof that she hadn’t completed basic training as this was the final exercise. “Ok then. When we get in the zone stick close to me, don’t get separated. I’ll try to look out for you but it’s up to you to stick with me. If you get lost use your HUD to find me or one of the other fire teams.”

“Who are we fighting?”

“Droids” Fareeha said simply. Every solider was familiar with the mark 3 training droid. It had been in service for years as it was an effective training tool for live fire exercises. They carried stun weapons. Although they couldn’t kill they did hurt, some said being shot by a droid was worse than being shot for real. “It will be dark so make sure you know what you’re shooting at and what’s behind it. We don’t want any blue on blue.”

“Does that happen often?” Angela asked with concern.

“Rarely. Just… be careful, stay with me and you’ll be fine.” Fareeha said before turning back to her map. She went over their position and the approach one more time before glancing up to sergeant Lacroix. The French woman gave her a nod, so with a sigh she stood up and put her helmet back on. “Break over. Krakow lead us out.”

Once more the steady beat of boots on pavement and the jingle of ammunition filled the crisp night.

\---

The closer Angela got to the training area the more anxious she became. Morrison’s words and threats filled her with dread. Knowing that almost every person around her hated her guts had her on edge, accidents happen.

The road widened and soon a chain fence came into view, a strange sight for an area dominated by timeless stone walls and hedgerows. By the road was a small hut, light spilled from the open door illuminating a barricade. A guard was waiting for them beside the gate. He wore a coat under his rainproof outer shell despite the rain only being light and held a lit cigarette between his lips. Upon the arrival of the ODSTs he opened the gate with little fanfare. Once they were though he quickly returned to his hut, he had but four hours left until he was relieved.

The moment Alpha stepped through the gate the mood within the unit changed drastically. The fire teams spread out on either side of the road as it opened further into a forested area. Weapons were loaded and raised as the unit cautiously begun to move down the road. She could hear Fareeha beside her and in her head as she ordered alpha one further out on the right and weapons closer in on the left.

The unit crept silently though the woods, the only sound coming from the crack of fallen branches under their boots and the increasing wind though the trees. They would have been blind in this darkness were it not for their helmet’s night vision, providing an enhanced view of the world around them.

Angela did her best to keep pace with the green outlined lieutenant but unlike her comrades she was not as sure footed and often stumbled, slowing her pace and making more noise in the process.

They didn’t encounter any signs of activity and reached the clearing in the forest without firing a shot.

When the unit reached the edge of the clearing Angela’s radio startled her.

Fareeha’s voice once more filled her head with orders. “Krakow take your guys and secure the right flank, Webster you’re on the left. I want the MMG on my position. Lacroix support the right flank.”

Angela watched as the troopers went about their business silently, each finding a tree, a rock or fallen log to take cover behind as they scanned the wooded area around them.

There was a sudden rustling of leaves beside her and the sound of someone running towards her. She turned to face it, her hands shook as she raised her weapon towards the frightening sounds. Out of the bushes burst the machinegun team, they didn’t notice Angela’s panicked state and quickly got to work setting up the gun, bracing it on a rock so it could cover the far tree line with ease.

On her other side Fareeha joined her, crouching down next to a tree. When she saw Angela’s bewildered state she gripped her shoulder and brought her down into cover.

“Command this is Alpha; LZ X-Ray is secure. Standing by for your arrival.”

\---

Fareeha watched the far tree line intently, watching for any sign of movement. She knew from experience that the droids they were facing were clever; it wasn’t unheard of that a raw platoon could get overwhelmed and wiped out if they weren’t carful. Arguably droids were superior soldiers than humans for a number of reasons. Beyond their enchanted strength, on-board guidance and targeting computers, reduced logistical cost and the ability to create them on a massive scale, droids also shared a single consciousness. This meant that they do not need to communicate and are able to move as a single entity, taking advantage of any weakness found with efficiency. Thankfully for the men and women of the navy who had to face these formidable foes they were dumbed down to match the abilities of the average pirate or soldier.

She was listening to her fire teams report in when she first spotted movement in the opposite tree line. She was about to report it when a measured voice came over the radio.

“Alpha two has movement at our front, fire team size. Looks like they’re patrolling the forest moving across our front.” Webster reported.

The radio report was quickly followed up by a similar update from Krakow. He too had movement in front of him however these droids were approaching.

“Whisky 1-1 to ground team; ETA to LZ 3 mikes.”

Fareeha swore under her breath, the imminent arrival of the transport would complicate things. Her first priority was to clear the tree line around the landing zone, the flanks would hold until bravo squad could land safely.

“Gunner, do you have a shot on that team?” She asked the machinegun team. The gunner nodded before bracing his shoulder hard against the stock in preparation. His assistant readied another box of ammunition before raising his personal weapon towards the approaching enemy. “The moment they step out of the trees open up on them.” She ordered before keying her mic for the squad to hear. “Prepare to fire.” She ordered simply.

Fareeha watched as the five droids slowly made their way through the trees towards the clearing. She flicked off the safety and adjusted her scope, bringing the lead droid into focus. She quickly glanced to her medic and was proud of what she saw. Despite her obvious fear Angela had adopted an almost passable fighting position, even her weapon was pointed in the right direction.

“Remember, short bursts.” She reminded the blonde. “And take your safety off.” she added quietly.

\---

Angela silently cursed herself as she flicked off her safety, she thought she had been doing so well. In the darkness she could only just make out the humanoid shapes walking slowly towards her, she had no experience shooting in this light and knew that with her aim she would likely miss every shot she took.

Suddenly and without warning the machinegun burst into life. It felt as if she had be punched in the side as the weapon fired, spewing red tracers from its flaming maw across the clearing into the other tree line. Soon the gun was joined by others, the short controlled bursts of the assistant gunner and the single, calculated shots of Fareeha were almost drowned out by the larger weapon.

Just as quickly as it had started the gun went quiet, as too did the weapons around it. Now that she could hear herself think the only sound she could hear was the sizzling rain on the hot barrel. Around her the crackle of gun fire slackened as her squad mates dispatched their foes. She jumped when the ground shook, a distance grenade to flush out the last of the droids. She was almost unaware of the radio traffic in her ear declaring the immediate threat over.

She could feel the adrenaline coursing though her veins. Every fibre of her being was screaming at her to throw down her weapon and run.

“You did well.” A voice inside her head said as a strong hand gripped her shoulder. She turned to find Fareeha standing over her, her helmet under her arm and with an out stretched hand. For a moment she believed herself to be in a recruitment poster. The strong and handsome naval officer cut a fine image.

Angela took the offering and struggled to her feet. “I didn’t shoot.” She said quietly, her voice still shaky with fear and adrenaline.

“There will be plenty of time for that soon.” Fareeha said with a broad grin. “Bravo is about to land. Let’s go see how Webster is doing.” She said as she put her helmet back on. “Just stay behind me, I’ll protect you.”

\---

A voice that Fareeha had been dreading came over the radio as she worked her way over to Webster’s fire team.

“Amari! Bravo is on the deck and moving towards the objective. Get your guys to the blocking position on the double.” Morrison barked.

“Moving out now, Sir” she replied.

The objective for this mission was to secure a farmhouse on the shore of Lock Ard. Bravo had been given the honour of capturing the building while alpha had been relegated to controlling the road and the surrounding forests on the approach, at least they would have the weapon’s team with them.

“Krakow, Lacroix; start moving to your positions, I’ll stick with Webster and MMG for the time being.” On her tactical display Fareeha could instantly see the two elements moving off towards their marks. “Webster!” she called out. “Move’em out”

The black clad figures rose from their positions and begun to cautiously move deeper into the forest. Once more the silence of the night overwhelmed them, only the light rain on their helmets and the snapping of twigs could be heard.

Although she knew Angela was trying her best she couldn’t help but feel annoyed whenever she heard the medic stumble or trip in the dark, she made more noise than the fire team combined.

She was just about to tell Angela to quieten down when a bolt of blue energy shot out of the dark flying right towards her. Her instincts and training kicked in and she threw herself to the ground. All around her erupted into chaos. Yelling, shooting, muzzle flashes momentary lit up the pitch black forest as the fire team in front of her responded. Each shot lit up the darkness providing a snap shot of the scene.

“Alpha two in contact!” Webster reported over the radio. “Moving to…” whatever he was saying was drowned out by the MMG opening up.

For a moment Fareeha forgot the fighting around her to be impressed with the team’s reaction time, it had taken them only seconds to set up and begin providing their allies with fire support, she made a note to complement them on their skill. She got up off her stomach as quickly sought cover behind a fallen tree.

The situation was this; Fareeha had managed to get herself on the extreme left flank with the MMG somewhere to her back right and alpha one somewhere to her immediate right. Although she couldn’t tell, by the amount of incoming fire the small unit was receiving it seemed they had stumbled onto a squad, twice their numbers. She peaked out from behind her cover, to her front two droids were advancing on her. Quickly she brought her weapon up and dispatched them with a burst each before taking cover once more.

Her head was full of voices. In one ear she had alpha two’s chatter, a mix of panicked and determined voices, each giving and following direction as they fought back the droids. In the other was alpha one’s comms, cool and collected as they advanced though the forest in search of the enemy. To top it off she had the command net in both, Morrison’s orders and request for updates as bravo arrived at their staging point, waiting for the all clear from alpha to begin their assault. Above it all she heard the call for grenades, she braced herself against her cover and moments later three muted thuds shock her body to its core.

The enemy’s fire had slackened considerably thanks to the strong armed troopers of alpha two. With the MMG covering them Fareeha watched the fire team begin to advance under fire, each man moving from cover to cover while returning fire. It was a sight that would make any combat leader glow with pride.

With the last droid destroyed Fareeha breathed a sigh of relief. Although they had used slightly more ammunition than she would have liked alpha had made it to their blocking point only slightly behind schedule and with zero casualties. It was the word casualties that reminded her of Angela. She turned around the darkened forest but was unable to find the medic who should have been only a few steps behind her.

“Lost something?” sergeant Lacroix asked as she approached out of the darkness with her sniper rifle strapped to her back, her side arm out and her spotter in tow.

\---

When they had taken fire, like Fareeha, Angela had hit the deck. However in the chaos of it all she lost sight of Fareeha. “Faree… Amari, where are you?” she called into her radio above the din of battle. Despite her better judgment she got to her feet. All around her there were muzzle flashes, tracers, shouting and moving bodies yet she couldn’t tell who was who.

Suddenly she found herself face first in a muddy ditch, something hard had struck her in the shoulder. The mud refused to let her go, it sapped her strength as she struggled to climb out of the ditch. With all the adrenaline in her she couldn’t make her hands grip properly, she couldn’t only climb on knees, elbows and closed fists. She was exhausted when her foot finally found purchase and she could get up and out of the ditch. She collapsed on the ground without the strength to get up. When she finally gathered the strength to look up she found herself face to face with two pairs of combat boots.

“You missed.” A heavily accented voice said matter-of-factly.

Angela didn’t dare look up when she heard the voice. She cowered on the ground as one of the boots came up before pressing down on her injured shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain.

“No.” The voice spoke once more. “It no longer looks like an accident, there would be an investigation. So long Ziegler, until next time.” As quickly as they had appeared the two pairs of boots vanished into the forest.

\---

Angela sobbed behind her helmet as she lay curled up in the muddy earth. The fighting had stopped but it seemed no one had noticed her absence and moved on. She clutched her injured shoulder as she hugged herself, her whole body shaking from the adrenaline and her tears.

“Zeigler where are you?”

Angela had neither the strength nor the courage to speak up when she heard Fareeha’s voice over the radio. Instead she remained where she lay with only the wind and her tears to comfort her.

\---

Fareeha was furious as she marched back into the forest alone. The exercise was over, all objective complete. She was wet, cold and tired, all she and her squad wanted to do was get back to base for a well-deserved shower and sleep. They couldn’t leave however until their medic had re-joined them.

The reason Fareeha was angry rather than concerned was that she knew her medic was still alive, she had her HUD to thank for that information, it also gave her the medic’s location so she wouldn’t need to search the entire forest.

She passed by droids during her trek through the forest. The remaining living droids were gathering up their dead. Most of the droids that had simply been shot could be refurbished; the others would take a little while longer. This part of the exercise always unnerved Fareeha, that by the flick of a switch her former enemies went from wanting to shoot her to completely ignoring her existence. it would be frightening if they remembered all of this, Fareeha thought as she walked around a mass grave of fallen droids.

Fareeha found Angela sitting on a rock, her knees brought up to her chest and her helmet discarded in the mud.

“What the hell Ziegler? Where did you go? It’s time to head back to base.” She said as she approached.

It was only as she drew in closer and turned on her head mounted light did she realise the full extent of the situation. The medic crying and was covered in mud, from what she could see the armour on her shoulder had been damaged and half of her gear was missing. Most the concerning thing however was that her weapon was nowhere to be seen.

“Angela, what happened?” she asked as she cautiously approached the crying medic. The blond looked up at her with bloodshot eyes as let go of her knees, letting her legs slip down to the ground. Fareeha instantly took a step back when she saw Angela’s sidearm in her lap.

“I can’t do this anymore” Angela said quietly. “I’m not cut out to be a soldier.”

“Angela…”

The blonde startled her when she looked up from the pistol in her lap. “Do you know where I was a month ago? In a laboratory. I had dreamed about that posting for years. I’d worked so hard to get there, I’d done everything that was asked of me. I played the political game and kissed the right asses. Now look at me… they took it all away and put me… here; my own personal hell.”

“Angela why don’t you give me the gun, then we can talk about this?” Fareeha suggested as she took a careful step forward, her hand out stretched.

“This?” Angela laughed as she held up the gun. “I couldn’t even do this right. I did everything just as you told me. I couldn’t even kill myself right.” She said quietly before tossing it onto the ground.

 “Why don’t you start at the beginning” Fareeha suggested. She approached her medic and took a seat beside her.

Angela look a deep breath before speaking. “My name is Doctor Angela Zeigler. I didn’t volunteer for this, it’s my punishment.”

“What did you do?”

“I made a mistake that cost 32 people their lives”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!  
> first of all I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. Its the first action based thing i've written in a while so hopefully its ok.
> 
> Secondly I have a request; I need your help.  
> As you may or may not have noticed from my other stories fighting and combat are not really my thing. In fact i'm not that militarily minded at all. In preparation for this story i did a lot of research on real world tactics and the halo universe in general. What i would like from you guys is to know whether or not i'm hitting the mark so to speak (is what i'm putting in the story making sense?) also are you guys able to follow it?
> 
> This story is still a pharmacy story so don't worry, its just i've never written stuff like this before and I was hoping for some feedback is all.
> 
> If anyone is interested in getting a sneak peak at the story and/or beta reading for me, hit me up on discord (OverNoot#7547)
> 
> <3 Noot


	6. Rain and tears

“Start from the beginning.”

 _Beginning what was the beginning?_ Angela thought as she remained perched on her damp rock hugging herself. Her tears had stopped but the rain had not. The night was growing colder and she shivered with what little adrenalin she had left as well as the cold. Without the protection of her helmet the rain had left her hair soaked so it stuck to her muddy face.

“I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt.” Angela whispered. “I was trying to help.”

Once more it began to rain.

\---

“Doctor Zeigler!” A voice startled Angela as she spoke quietly with a colleague in her hotel’s restaurant. She was on leave in London, her work at the naval hospital in Zürich kept her busy so she had been looking forward to some time off for quite a while.

“Doctor Zeigler I do apologise but when I saw you I simply had to come over.” The man said as he approached Angela’s table.

“Hello, I don’t believe we’ve met” She said politely. Were it not for his officer’s uniform she would have shown him the door but as a member of the navy herself it was expected that she show some politeness.

“Of course, how rude of me.” The man laughed as he held out his hand. “Doctor Wilby at your service, I saw you speak in Vienna last month.”   

Although she couldn’t remember the tall and admittedly handsome man she nodded politely.

Only now realising that she wasn’t dining alone did he blush. “I don’t mean to interrupt your dinner but I just finished reading your paper; _Nanites and their future applications in medical science_ and I just had to tell you how much I enjoyed reading it.”

“You read it?” she asked with joy. Despite the effort she had put into the paper she doubted it would pick up much attention. Nanite technology was still in its infancy and any attempt to apply it to the medical sphere would be a costly one.

“From cover to cover” Doctor Wilby said proudly. “Here’s my card. I’d love to talk to you about conducting some more research into the viability of nanites in medicine.”

\---

“He just ran into you and offered you a job?” Fareeha asked.

Once again the rain had stopped but the damp cold still seeped into the pair. Fareeha had sent her squad back to the barracks on the pelican and hoped it would return for her soon.

“The job offer came later” Angela said. “It was a position on an already existing team. They were working on the next generation of artificial limbs. Huge amounts of funding and resources. Doctor Wilby said I could piggyback off his program and conduct my own research.”

“Just like that? No questions asked?”

Angela shook her head. “All I had to do was share my research with them.”

“Then how did you end up here?”

“I got lost one night.”

\---

“Doctor, you’re pacing again.”

Angela cringed at the sound of her assistance’s voice. Despite working with her for almost a year she had yet to fully accept the young woman’s presence, not matter how helpful she tried to be.

“Why don’t they work?” Angela asked the air around her. “All three generations worked fine in the simulations. Why do they all fail the moment they are fabricated?”

“Doctor surely this can wait until morning.” The assistant said kindly as she begun to turn off the various pieces of equipment around the small lab. “And besides Doctor Wilby doesn’t seem worried.”

That was the one thing that kept Angela grounded. Despite a year’s work and countless millions spent on research and development with nothing to show for it Doctor Wilby never seemed worried by it. Whenever she came to him with another failure despite her best efforts he would always dismiss her worry.

“You’ll get it next time, I’m sure of it.” he had said at their last meeting just two weeks ago. “The simulations are second to none. You’ve already accomplished so much more than I thought possible.”

Despite her initial reservations she had grown to like Doctor Wilby, even if he was a doctor of economics and not medicine. It was her friendship for the man that kept her from expelling the assistant he had chosen for her.

“Let’s look at it in the morning light. Goodnight Doctor Ziegler.” The assistant said as she left.

With her assistant gone Angela could now focus more clearly. She turned a few machines back on and went to work looking over her latest failure.

The night ticked on and Angela remained in her lab. She felt neither hunger nor fatigue as she went over countless documents, plans, reports and tests all aimed at finding a fault in her work. Were anyone to look into her lab they would find the blond hunched over her work, illuminated only by a desk lamp and the various data screens around the room while she quietly mumbled to herself in displeasure.

Outside the Atlantic wind howled and battered the research platform. Although at first she had been horrified at the thought of living in the middle of the ocean Angela had now become accustomed to the wind and waves. They received supplies once a week thanks to a transport out of Scapa Flow. The once mighty naval base now served as the final bastion of the Navy’s water based craft. Ironically of the thousands of ships in the navy only ten could float.

Inspiration came at the stroke of midnight. All avenues had been exhausted bar one; the fabricator. It was the only constant between all three generations of failing nanites. She sent off her designs to the fabrication team who in turn would create the natinies. She would need to go inspect the fabricator software to see if the issue lie there.

There was however one problem, Angela had never been to the fabricator before. She had seen the room where it was housed once during her first day on the platform but since then she had remained more or less entirely in her lab or her quarters. The darkness of a moonless night and the reduced lighting would make her search even more difficult. Despite this she set off in search with a torch and plans in hand.

The pristine white corridors were empty except for the sound of her shoes against the tiled floor. She knew more or less where she was going. She lived and worked in Wing A which housed the landing pad, admin office, staff quarters and her lab which had at one point been the platform’s gym. Wing B was the true lab.

She felt unnerved as she wondered the empty halls. The only thing that proved that she was not alone was the distant sounds of laughter coming from the kitchen but in the darkness they had a more sinister effect.

“Working late?”

Angela yelped in surprise at the sudden voice behind her. She spun quickly towards the voice but felt wholly unprepared to face whatever she might find. She let out a sigh of relief when she found herself face to face with one of the platform’s guards.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” She said as she hit the guard’s arm.  She was relived it was this particular guard, a young private named Jason. Unlike the other two guards on the platform Jason was more than willing to chat with her and they had become fast friends despite him being posted to Wing B.

“Sorry” The private laughed. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“I could say the same thing about you.” She retorted.

“Supply ship just arrived so I need to go help unload.” Jason sighed for such a duty would mean exposing himself to the cold sea air. “You?”

“I need to look at the fabricator.” She said as they begun to walk together down the hall.

“That’s in wing B.” Jason frowned. “You’ll need permission from Welby.”

Now it was Angela’s turn to frown. She was unaware that she needed permission to go into the other wing. “I wouldn’t want to wake him.” She said as they arrived at the airlock to wing B. “Can’t you just let me in?” she asked in her sweetest voice.

“I really shouldn’t.” the private said as he avoided the blonde’s piercing blue eyes.

“Pleaseee…” Angela begged as she took a step closer. She knew that the young private had a crush on her. Normally she would be against taking advantage of his feelings like this but she couldn’t let wait until tomorrow, not when she was so close to finding a potential solution.

“Fine” the guard sighed as he passed his security ID over the reader causing the doors to open with a soft hiss.

“Thankyou” she said kindly before kissing him softly on the cheek. “Don’t catch a cold out there.” She said before leaving the stunned and blushing guard where he stood.

Wing B was lighter than Wing A. As she walked down the corridor the lights turned on automatically, lighting her path. By another stroke of luck each room was labelled and signposted; all she would need to do was follow the signs.

With the distant sound of laughter gone behind the airlock and with it the young guard Angela was once more alone with her footsteps and the wind. The labs she walked past were eerily quiet, entirely still bar the occasional flickering light from a piece of equipment. She followed the signs to a large room that housed an almost equally large machine; the fabricator. Although it lay dormant she didn’t mind as it’s console remained lit.

Thankfully the user interface was easy to use as Angela searched through its pervious jobs. She scrolled down past designs for robotic limbs, computer parts and a new coffee mug before finding her own.

At first she found nothing unusual with the design but as she compared her design with what was made she found cause for concern. Someone had altered the power supply from her original design rendering the microscopic robot useless.

“Who changed the design?” she asked herself quietly as she continued to find minor alterations that would make her nanites non-functional.

The access logs provided no answer as access to the fabricator was not monitored. She found only one clue, something had been made prior to her nanites but the log had been deleted. All that remained of this phantom job was the run time; one hour thirty two minutes, the same time it took to create a batch of generation three nanites.

Angela was furious; someone had been sabotaging her work for months. If the latest generation had been altered it was just as likely that the past two iterations were subject to the same treatment. She only wished that she had found out sooner.

She gathered up her plans and headed back. She no longer cared about the time, she would wake Doctor Wilby right away. She stormed out of the room in a blinding rage back the way she came, at least she thought she had as soon she came to a dead end.

She swore under her breath as she turned around. She took a step but didn’t take another when she heard a sound she recognised, a heartbeat monitor or rather two monitors.

Despite her bubbling rage she was curious; the platform’s med bay was in the other wing. Cautiously she opened the door to the beeping room and peered inside.

The dark room was lit only by the two heart monitors, the steady flash of each heartbeat outlining the two beds the patients shackled. Despite her better judgment Angela moved in closer for a better look. As her eyes became better accustomed to the dim light she begun to see the two occupants more clearly. At first Angela thought the closest man was sweating as the light reflected off his uncovered body. It was then to her horror that she saw that most of his limbs and his torso had been replaced with mechanical parts and artificial limbs. These parts were far more complex and advanced than she had ever seen before.

The other man was equally as horrifying. Quite simply the man’s flesh and skin were in a constant state of growth and decay. This constant change created an almost smoke effect around his entire body. Angela watched on with both fascination and a growing sense of dread. Her mind was a whirlwind of ideas and thoughts as to what could cause such a horrible affliction but as hard as she tried she couldn’t escape one overriding thought, Nanites.

\---

Fareeha found it difficult to listen to Angela’s story. Not only did horrific nature of these modifications make her deeply uncomfortable but so too did Angela’s tears as she recounted them. It was painful to watch her in such a state of distress as she explained how she fled from the room, accidentally knocking over some equipment in the process, and ran to her quarters. She sat in stunned silence as Angela told her of the screams she heard mere minutes later and how in her terror she had hidden away on the weekly supply ship as it left completely unaware of the carnage it was departing from.

“What happened when you made it to the mainland?” She asked once Angela had calmed down some more.

“I turned myself in. I told them what had happened and they sent a team to investigate. A couple of hours later I was being arrested and moved to another base where they threw me in a dark cell.”

Fareeha had always had a strong sense of right and wrong. As a child she had often gotten into fights with bullies twice her size, often to her detriment. Despite her mother’s insistence that right and wrong were not always so clear she had always fought on the side of the right and the just. Now as she sat on a damp rock in Scotland beside a crying doctor she felt the same sense of injustice and the urgency to act as she had done as a child.

“I’m going to talk to Morrison” She declared as stood up. “I won’t let him treat you like this. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“You can’t talk to him” Angela replied quickly. “He said that he would kill me if I told anyone.”

“But Angela, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Fareeha pleaded.

“It was still my research. Without me they wouldn’t have been able to do what they did.” Angela said quietly.

“That doesn’t matter. You didn’t do anything to hurt those men. You shouldn’t be treated like this.” Fareeha said. She took a breath and sat back down next to Angela.

“Nobody would listen to you anyway” Angela said with resignation. “I should have let them shoot me when Morrison recruited me, I can’t keep living in fear.” She said as she rubbed her sore shoulder.

It was only now as Angela wiped away the mud from her armour did Fareeha see the damage. “Medium calibre” she said quietly to herself as she ran her fingers over the scratched armour. “Do you know who did this?”

Angela shook her head. “They said something to me but I was too frightened to look up.” She said ashamedly.

“Alright” Fareeha sighed as she stood up. “Let get you back to base. I’ll… I’ll work something out” she said offering Angela her hand.

For the final time the pair exited the forest towards the landing zone. The androids had finished their clean up, the only evidence of them being there were their footprints in the mud. Fareeha helped Angela up into the empty transport. She felt strange helping Angela into her seat, such a large space for only two people. She took the seat next to the blond, right next to the open hatch. She would explain that they were always to sit like this on another day.

The short flight was completed in silence. Fareeha saw how exhausted both physically and mentally she was as she sat hunched over holding her head in her hands.

\---

By the morning Fareeha had a plan. Although Angela had asked her not to, she would go have a word with Morrison. Surely this mistake could be sorted out.

No one had seemed to care when she and Angela had arrived back at base. Nor did they seem worried by the damage to Angela’s armour. She suspected that the blond would be sore this morning but she had heard no complaints yet.

Morrison was in his quarters when she arrived. He was sitting at his desk, hunched over a large technical manual. Beside him a smaller book that he occasionally wrote in while mumbling to himself. She made her presence known with a polite knock.

“Ah Amari! Come in.”

Morrison’s happy mood caught her off guard. Despite the long night and his apparent frustration with whatever it was that he was reading Morrison was in the best mood she had ever seen him in.

“Excellent work last night.” He continued.

When she made to speak he stopped you. “I know I gave you a hard time about being late to the blocking point but I don’t hold it against you. You did well under the circumstances.”

“Thankyou sir.” It was strange for her to hear such praise from an otherwise gruff man. “I was hoping I could talk to you about Private Zeigler.” Morrison’s mood changed in an instant at the mention of the medic but she was undeterred. “She told me what happened and how she ended up here. I think you should let her leave. She’s been punished enough.”

“Enough?” Morrison roared, waking McCree who was sleeping a bed away. “Was it enough when she was found to be experimenting on not one but two unwilling participants? Or was it enough when instead of facing an investigation she turned her experiments loose in the hopes that they would destroy the platform and hide the evidence, along with her own team?”

“What?” she gasped. “That’s not what happened! She was tricked into helping them! She didn’t know what they were doing!”

Morrison laughed as he went back to his desk. “She finally found someone dumb enough to believe that crap” he spat. He pulled out a thin folder from his desk and handed it to her. “Don’t believe what that witch is telling you. She’s a monster and she’ll get what she deserves, I owe it to her victims and all the others like them… Your mother included.” He added softly before sitting back at his desk.

\---

Only once she was locked into her private room did Fareeha dare open the file Morrison had given her. It wasn’t because of the red _Top Secret_ stamp on the cover; Jack had made no mention of it when he handed it over. She locked herself away from prying eyes as she feared what it might say, and how it might hurt either her squad or Angela. It was better for her to digest its contents alone rather than letting others act rashly.

The file was thinner than she had expected for such a dramatic event, only five pages of which one was simply a cover sheet detailing the other four. A radio log, an investigation summary, a charge sheet and a copied memo.

Fareeha started with the radio log.

The first few lines were nothing interesting, simple procedure as a pelican took off from the Scapa Flow base and headed towards the research platform. Things however got interesting when the marines landed on the platform. Although their communications back to base were infrequent they still painted a picture of utter carnage and destruction. Blood and gore littered the hallways as the team made their way deeper into the site. Worryingly the team only found one of the guards. His weapon was missing and by the lack of shell casing it seemed that he was taken by surprise. Things took a dramatic turn when they entered wing B. almost instantly they came under fire from an unknown assailant or assailants. They fell back towards the landing pad and the final radio message was from the pilot calling for the team to hurry up. What followed was twenty minutes of radio silence punctuated by repeated attempts by the Scapa Flow radio room to raise the team but to no avail. A second team was dispatched soon after. Upon their arrival they found the platform ablaze and could see no sign of the first team or the pelican that flew them there.

“Well that doesn’t explain anything” Fareeha mumbled to herself as she put the first report down. “It doesn’t even mention Angela.”

The charge sheet detailed the criminal charges put forward against doctor Ziegler. 32 counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of experimentation without consent and to Fareeha’s surprise one count of taking leave without permission.

Still Fareeha wasn’t convinced that Morrison’s strongly held conviction that Angela deserved the treatment she was getting. Things begun to make sense however when she moved on to the memo.

The address had been blacked out, as had most identifying marks such as the date and where it was written. The body was a simple thankyou note;

_\---_

 

_XXXXXXXXXXXXX                                                                                                                                                                                  XX.XX.XXX_

_Thank you once again for the opportunity to take the lead in this exciting program_. _As per your instructions I will begin work on the prosthetic and cybernetic integration program until the nanite program has matured enough to be used with a live subject. As per protocol I will send a representative to meet with you in London monthly to update you on our progress here._

_Yours  
Doctor Angela Zeigler._

 

_\---_

 

This had Fareeha concerned. Could Angela really be behind this?

The final piece of paper was a one page summary of an investigation into allegations of unethical and illegal actions by a research group. Although it named Angela as the head of the program and detailed the ways in which she had broken the law it all seemed too perfect. It didn’t mention any witnesses beyond the initial anonymous tip and for an apparently lengthy investigation it only had one agent assigned to it. More so it never mentioned any preparation to confront Angela which was supposed to be the thing that triggered her flight.

She was still deep in thought when there was a knock at her door.

“Come in” she called as quickly hid the files in her desk.

“Morning lieutenant” McCree said as stood in the doorway. “Message from Morrison; The simulation pods will be arriving Monday so he’s giving the unit the weekend off. You can send your guys down to the armoury to stow their gear and collect their passes. He has no plans for the afternoon so you can send them off early if you like.”

“Thankyou sir, I know everyone would appreciate the break even if we haven’t been at this long.”

“Wasn’t my idea” McCree laughed. “Jack was in oddly good mood this morning. I wouldn’t expect any more passes from now on. Make sure you make the most of it.” he said before turning to leave. “Oh… Zeigler doesn’t get a pass.” He added sadly.

Fareeha slumped in her seat as she watched McCree leave. She felt bad that one more the medic was being punished for something that seemed so unjust. “Sir Wait!” she called out as she went after him.

“Hmm?”

“Morrison, do you know why he hates Zeigler so much?” she asked. If anyone knew why Morrison was the way he was it would be his second in command. She was not filled with hope when the captain shrugged.

“I don’t know.” McCree sighed. “I didn’t ask and he didn’t say. I don’t think he would tell me if I asked.” He said before walking back to his hut.

\---

Angela’s body ached. Her feet were sore from her new boots thanks to the marching and the blisters that came with it. Her legs felt like lead from carrying all of her equipment over hill and though muddy ditches. A large and very tender bruise was forming on her shoulder where she had been shot. She knew she should be thankful that the armour had worked but she wondered if getting shot for real might have hurt her less. Finally her head hurt from her sleep deprivation, the hardship she faced on a daily basis, the constant living in fear for her life and the guilt that she had left her friends and workmates to die.

She laid battered and bruised in her bed trying to catch up on some much needed rest. As much as she wanted to she couldn’t with all the movement around her. Squad mates playing cards on the bunk next to her, weapons team’s gunfire at the shooting range, the shouts and cheers as some of alpha’s more restless members practiced their hand to hand combat outside and the heavy boot steps of her lieutenant approaching her bed.

The card playing group quickly finished their game and left to go play away from their leader’s gaze.

“How are you feeling?” Fareeha asked as she sat down. “Sore?”

Angela nodded “Only a little” she lied. “I taped up my feet and took some painkillers from my kit for my shoulder. I’ll be fine.”

“Good… Good” Fareeha nodded. “I just wanted to see how you were going. We didn’t get to talk much after we got back.”

“I’m ok” Angela said quietly. “It was nice to finally talk to someone. I haven’t really talked to anyone since…” she stopped herself when she started to feel emotional.

“It’s ok” Fareeha reassured her. “And do you still feel like you might…” her voice trailed off as she awkwardly shrugged.

“You can give me my ammunition back if that’s what you’re asking.” Angela said with equal awkwardness and embarrassment. It had been one of the only things the two had said when they arrived back at base. She wouldn’t have tried again but the fact that Fareeha was concerned for her was a nice thought, even in such dire times.

“Good.”

Angela felt a strange feeling of warmth when Fareeha smiled at her.

“I’ll let you get some rest.” Fareeha said as she stood up. “I’m going to the gym but if you need me I’ll be on the radio.”

\---

Fareeha stood proudly at the front of her squad. She had them formed up in the parade squad and she couldn’t have been more pleased with what she saw. Without her asking everyone had spent the afternoon cleaning their equipment of the mud and dirt of the previous night’s exercise. Now their armour shone in the light, it was practically new. She was also glad to see some small attempts at customisation throughout the ranks. Someone had found some paint and added a red band on the right arm of the members fire team 1 and a blue band on the left for the second team. Others had gone even further by adding nicknames, extra pockets or an extra knife attached to the chest. Internally she decided to allow it for now but to not let it get out of hand.

She walked down the two lines inspecting her troops. Although they all stood motionless with their visors blackened out she could sense their excitement. Word had gotten around that they would be getting a weekend pass. She had overhead hushed and whispered plans of trips down to London or Paris. Some even considered a trip to the tether, a space station affixed to the earth by one of the many space elevators dotted around the equator. The tether was not the largest station around the earth but it was the oldest. It was the traditional first port of call for every new naval ship. Soon it would be hosting the HMS Repulse, the first in a new line of battle cruiser.

“As you may have heard from our sister squad; the Lieutenant Commander has been kind enough to issue us a weekend pass each.” She said as she returned to her spot facing the squad. “So if you are so inclined you can go to the armoury to stow your gear and collect your pass. I expect you all back here clean and sober Monday at 0500. Be ready to run the assault course. Fall out!”

The group quickly dispersed, some breaking into a sprint towards the armoury. None wanted to waste a second of their leave. It caused her to feel a pang of guilt as she keyed her radio.

“Angela can we talk in my quarters?”

One of the benefits of the new armour was the ability to talk directly with a person, meaning none would hear her words or notice how the medic slipped from the group and turned back towards the huts.

She waited for her medic at the door to the hut. “Morrison isn’t giving you a pass” she said as she took off her helmet. She sat down on the front step and set her helmet beside her. Angela did the same.

“I guess he’s worried ill run off or something.” Angela said. “Is he staying?”

“I think he’s going to London” she sighed. “There will be guards on the gate though.”

“Where are you going?” Angela asked after a short silence.

She hadn’t given it much thought. The navy was her life, she had only a few friends outside of the service and most would be too busy or too far away to meet with. She could go to London, as a newly minted officer it was her duty to undergo the traditional trials but that could wait if she wished. If she left now she might be able to catch up with some of her old fire team for a weekend of drinking and partying but since her promotion a distance had grown between them. “I might stay here.” she found herself saying.

“You don’t have to. I’m not going to try anything silly.”

She quickly realised the implication that she didn’t trust Angela by herself and back-pedaled. “No not because of that. I could stay here and teach you some things. We could get through a lot in a weekend without needing to worry about everyone else.”

“Like what?” Angela asked sounding in a better mood.

“Well your aim could use some work. Your fitness will come with time but we could work out a little. A short two day boot camp. Besides, it will give us a chance to get to know each other.”

“I’d like that.”

\---

Angela wasn’t sure what to expect when Fareeha suggested a two day boot camp. She wasn’t against the idea of spending a weekend with the woman and she was curious to know more about the woman. Fareeha had told her that training would start tomorrow but as she sat on Fareeha’s bed reading the infantryman’s guide she wondered how true that was.

“Would you like to go into town for dinner tonight?”

Fareeha’s words startled her from her book. It wasn’t that she was particularly engrossed by her reading but that the suggestion had come from seemingly nowhere.

“It’s just the food here is kind of terrible as I’m sure you’ve noticed. It would be a nice change I thought.” Fareeha continued. “That is if you want.”

“That does sound nice.” She replied. She had noticed the subpar standard of the food at the base but she hadn’t been sure if that was the standard or not. “But I don’t have any money” she said  “Or… possessions for that matter. I left almost everything behind at the platform” she realised sadly.

“Don’t worry I’ll pay.” Fareeha said kindly. “You can take a look in my locker if some civis. They might be a little big.”

“Thankyou.”

Angela would have been lying if she wasn’t curious about what Fareeha wore in her spare time. when she opened her locker she was somewhat disappointed with what she found. Apart from the military uniforms Fareeha’s locker contained a large selection of workout gear. Although she had only seen the lieutenant in less than flattering military dress or armour she did appreciate the image her mind conjured up of her in figure hugging workout gear.

She picked out the smallest clothes she could find. Shoes however would be an issue.

“You’ll just have to wear your combat boots I’m afraid.” Fareeha said apparently senescing Angela’s issue. “I’m going to take a shower before we go if you don’t mind.” she announced as she gathered up her towel and some clothes to wear out. “For once I won’t have to fight for the hot water” she laughed.

Angela thought about joining her but was hesitant. She already felt deeply uncomfortable showering in the public and very open showers attached to the barracks. She always showered first or last as to avoid the rest of the squad. She wondered if it would be better or worse if only Fareeha was there. She was still contemplating this when she heard one of the showers come on.

“You should join me” Fareeha called out. “The water is warm for once.”

Not without some trepidation Angela went back to her bunk and gather up her things to take a shower. Cautiously she entered the bathroom. The showers were towards the back of the white tiled room. The shower area was two rows of showerheads attached to the ceiling. The two rows were separated by a chest high wall but were exposed to the showerheads next to it. She was relieved to find that Fareeha had picked a shower on the far side so that she was covered for the most part if someone were to look in.

Now Angela was faced with an important decision; did she take a shower next to Fareeha or the one across from her? As she stood in the doorway awkwardly contemplating this issue Fareeha spoke up.

“Don’t worry about being embarrassed.” She said alluding to Angela’s blushing cheeks. “It took me a while to get used to too. It’s better aboard ships, everything is a little more private.”  She said kindly. “if it makes it any easier I promise not to look” she said as she turned around.

“Thank you.” Angela said quietly as she disrobed and took the shower opposite her lieutenant.  “How long did it take you to…Ahh” she yelped in pain as the hot water hit her injured and bruised shoulder.

“Angela!” Fareeha turned around with a panicked expression.

Angela would’ve assured the worried woman that she was alright had she not been rendered speechless by the sight before her. She knew it was wrong to stare at Fareeha’s body, especially in its current naked state but as she looked over her toned dark skin, the various scars and battle wounds and tattoos she couldn’t tear her eyes away.

“Oh so I can’t look but you can?” Fareeha teased in a playful tone that seemed to surprise even herself.

Angela regained her senses and averted her eyes. “Sorry” she blushed as she focused on her own feet.

“it’s fine” Fareeha laughed. “You’re not the first person I’ve caught staring. Do you like my tattoos?”

Angela liked Fareeha’s tattoos very much long with the rest of her body. From her hazy glance she had seen that Fareeha had both upper arms tattooed as well as her right forearm not to mention her striking tattoo beneath her right eye.

“Yes” Angela answered quietly. “Do they mean anything?”

“Yeah some of them do. This one is the eye of Horus, a symbol of protection.” She said pointing to the one below her eye. “My mother had a similar one. These were just for fun” she said referring to her right arm and the coloured Egyptian inspired designs. “And these ones are to remember all the units I’ve been a part of. In hindsight I think the scars do just a good a job.”

Angela was fascinated by these tattoos. On the first row highest up to the shoulder were a series of forts with a star map below each.

“I was a garrison trooper for a while out of basic.” Fareeha explained. “No one wanted Ana Amari’s only child to get hurt lest she come back from the grave to punish them.”

Below them was a profile of a ship with the words _HMS Warspite_ written below. Beside the ship was a lion’s head also in profile along with a medal.

“You won a medal?” she asked.

Fareeha nodded. “The Battle of Lion’s head.” She said. “During the last days of the most resent police action. I lost a lot of friends that day.” She added sadly.

“Were you frightened?” Angela asked. A simulated battle had been a terrifying experience for her, she didn’t think that she would survive a real one.

“The days before on the arms and the back were worse.” Fareeha sighed. “You see; the Lion was a mountain formation that a pirate group was hiding within. Four spurs made up the legs along with a ridge and a plateau with a sheer cliff face made up the back and head. They called it the lion but I didn’t see the resemblance. The first few days were spent on reconnaissance as we tried to find the tunnel entrances. Little did we know but the whole area was mined. Two days knowing that any step could be your last one on two legs took its toll. Not to mention the fact that at any moment a group of pirates could pop up from anywhere and take a shot at you. But to answer your question, yes I was scared.” She turned off her shower and covered herself in a towel. “I’ll see you out front when you’re done.” She said quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize almost nothing happened in this chapter. Things will speed up soon I promise!


	7. Three stages of falling

The longer Fareeha was in Scotland the more she started to love the place. It was as far removed from her childhood home of Egypt as a place could be. Perhaps that was why, she mused as she strolled down the country lane that connected the ODST training base and the small village of Thornhill.

The thing she liked most about Scotland was the silence. Alexandria, her birth place, was a sprawling mega city, population 50 million. In her 18 years of living there she could not remember a time when it was silent, or even quiet. No matter the day or the hour there was always something happening. Even her dreams were noisy, especially after her mother’s death.

Now as she walked only the sound of two pairs of footsteps and the rustling of leaves followed her.

Angela walked beside her and she too was quiet. The woman hadn’t said a word beyond a quiet thankyou after she had helped the blond past the base’s guard post. Fareeha knew why, she had been less than polite when she abruptly ended their talk in the shower. But now as they walked she felt that too much time had passed to apologise and explain. How would one begin to explain the pain of remembering those lost in combat to someone who had never experienced it. She didn’t blame Angela, she blamed herself for trying to show off and impress the other woman by mentioning her tattoos knowing full well where it might end up. Perhaps a drink would loosen her tongue into forming an apology.

The quiet village came into view and with it their destination; the pub.

The local pub was a dying institution in the modern age. The quiet, cosy and comfortable centre of community life had slowly been forced out as populations soared. Put simply the local pub became too popular to sustain its warm and comfortable feel. In the colonies things were less cramped but unlike most things the idea of a pub simply didn’t translate well to the harsh realities and living conditions of colony life. Colonists didn’t need a place for a quiet drink in a warm and comfortable chair by the fire, they needed somewhere to drink away the pain of hard labour and even harder living.

“I thought all these places died out” Angela said as she approached corner front building.

Fareeha was glad to hear Angela’s voice once more, even if it was still slightly hesitant. “Let’s hope the food is better than the base’s” she said as she held the door open for the blond. Inside was just how she imagined it would be, a warm fire, an aging publican and an equally aged dog curled up asleep in front of the fire. Only a few of the village’s residents still frequented the place and they were sat at the bar or by the fire. “Why don’t I order for us?” Fareeha suggested, after all Angela had no money.

With food and drinks ordered Fareeha returned to the table Angela had chosen, one close to the fire. Angela thanked her quietly as she set her glass of wine down. “Is it alright? They didn’t have much of a selection. Its station grown unfortunately, I was hoping the might have something lunar.” She said once the blond had taken a sip.

“It’s fine, thankyou.” Angela replied. “I honestly cant tell the difference between station grown and colony grown half the time.”

“Nor can I.” Fareeha nodded. “Although I did get to try half a glass of earth grown wine a few years ago. Now that was something special.”

“Really?” Angela gasped. “That must have cost a fortune.”

“Thankfully I wasn’t paying” Fareeha laughed. “The captain of the Warspite gave it to me when I was recommended for my medal. It would have cost me more than a year’s pay otherwise.”

With the massive population on earth, space was becoming a high valued commodity. As the amount of farmable land decreased the government issued the _Land waste act_ which criminalised the use of farmable land for non-priority foodstuffs. Only some areas could continue to grow things such as grapes or barley to be used in luxury items, these being the Champagne and Cognac regions of France and the Scottish highlands, three liquors the empire could not function without, or at least the high command couldn’t. Most food and drink was now produced in large stations that orbited the earth or on the moon which has become the bread basket of the empire. The some food was grown or farmed on the colonies but these were often of questionable quality.

“I’m sorry about before.” Angela said after a moment’s pause. “I didn’t mean to bring up any bad memories.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Fareeha reassured the blond. “And I was no excuse for my rudeness. I’m sorry too.” she said.

Angela nodded in thanks before taking another sip of her drink. “So what did you have planned for me this weekend?”

Fareeha was thankful for the change of topic. “I’d like to work on your shooting” she had only seen the woman shoot once. Her accuracy would get her or her comrades killed in battle if they went up against any sort of opponent. “And just general soldiering” she shrugged. “There is a lot you need to know.”

“Like what?”

Fareeha was pleased that Angela sounded at least slightly interested. “Well… where you need to be during a firefight, how to properly react under pressure, your place in the hierarchy and I’m sure there will be a lot to know once we get into the pods.”

“What do you know about these pods?” Angela asked.

So far Fareeha knew very little about them. Morrison had been tight lipped about them, all her questions received vague answers. She wasn’t sure if Jack was hiding something or if he simply didn’t know. Either way it concerned her. “We will just have to wait and see.” She shrugged.

\---

Jack walked steadily down the empty halls of the Naval War Office towards his destination. The halls that teemed with life and people were barren at this hour except for the occasional beam of light that spilled from a sill occupied office. One office had been a hive of activity but when one of the occupants saw Jack looking in the door was shut firmly. Had Jack stayed he would have seen two armed guards get reassigned to guard the door. The War Office was a much colder and more sinister place at night, the moonlight reflected off the marble floor casting strange shadows on the walls and paintings. Unlike his last visit he did not have an escort to guide him to his destination, only a set of directions given to him by one of the night guards on duty gave him some direction. As his bootsteps followed him down the maze like halls he wondered why he had been summoned at such a late hour, surely Lord Albury did not keep such late hours. Eventually he found his destination, one of the many identical oak doors whose only distinguishing feature was a small brass plate that bore the name Albury.

Jack knocked twice on the heavy door but received no response. After the second attempt he tried the handle and found it unlocked.

Lord Albury’s office was in much the same state as the halls, dark and cold, illuminated only by pale moonlight. Beyond the sturdy wood desk was the large window that looked out onto St James’s park now a dark void that served to frame the yellow glow from the lights of Buckingham palace, the seat of the monarchy.

The only artificial light came from the crack beneath a side door that jack cautiously approached. He paused short and listened for any movement inside. When he thought that he could faintly hear the movement of papers he knocked. The door swung open to reveal Winston, Lord Albury’s assistant behind his paper covered desk.

“Ah jack! It’s so good to see you!” Winston’s booming voice filled his small office as jack stood in the door.

“Winston” he said politely as he stepped in. “I got your note.”

“You did? Excellent!” he said. “There has been much progress since we last spoke. Please, sit. I know you must be excited to finally get your hands on the pods. The simulators will be delivered tomorrow morning. I trust the training material made it to you.”

“It has, yes” Jack had already spent a few hours going over the material. The more that he read it, the realer it became and the more that he wondered if perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea.

“I also have good news. The Gibraltar has finished its refit. Captain Wilhelm of the 18 flotilla has been given command of her.”

Jack was less than pleased with this news. He had hoped that the ship would be commanded by someone younger and more daring. Captain Wilhelm in his youth had been one of the bravest and most dashing captains in the fleet but in his age he had settled down some would say to an extreme degree. ODSTs by their nature were not conservative.

Winston interrupted jack’s quiet annoyance by leaning in across the small space between them. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this but it will be made public before dawn.” He said quietly. “The HMS Rival was lost a few hours ago with all hands. Pirates” he said grimly.

Jack was shocked. The Rival was an 80 man corvette with weapons that could punch a hole through any civilian vessel. Anything it couldn’t destroy it could most certainly run away from. “Destroyed?”

Winston shook his head sadly. “Captured. They were delivering a new viceroy to a colony in the outer regions. They were waiting for them in orbit.”

“What is to be our response?” Jack asked.

“If his lordship had his way the Victoria and the Monarch would be out there cracking planets right now. We will have to wait and see what parliament has to say in the morning. I believe the Queen will be making a statement to the house.”      

\---

Perhaps it was the drink talking or their cosy surrounds but the more Angela sat and talked with Fareeha the more she liked the woman. Once the armour had been discarded for civilian clothes and the wine had softened her cold exterior Fareeha was a different person than Angela had expected.

When she had first met the woman she had been greeted with a polite yet guarded exterior. They had barely spoken during the week between her joining the squad and moving to the Thornhill training base. Much like the rest of the squad she had more or less ignored her. Never would she have imagined that the serious looking lieutenant would weeks later be telling her about all the times she got into trouble as a new recruit.

“And that’s why the Tristan colony jail is named after me.” Fareeha said with pride.

“But why steal a goat?” Angela laughed. “Was garrison duty really that bad?”

“You have no idea.” Fareeha groaned. “Month after month of glorified babysitting. There is never enough food, it’s always uncomfortable and on top of our normal duties they expected us to help build the dam place. We had to find a way to pass the time somehow. What about you, what did you do for fun on the platform?”

“Not much really.” Angela shrugged. “I took up photography, sunsets mostly. There wasn’t much else to do except work and drink in the evenings.”

“I bet you scientists had some pretty wild parties” Fareeha teased.

“Bunch of lightweights” Angela sighed as she finished off her second glass of wine. “It didn’t stop my assistant from sleeping her way through half of the staff” She mumbled. Angela had been given a room next to her assistant. For such an expensive and impressive location the design team had cut corners when it came to the thickness of the walls in the sleeping quarters.

Fareeha concealed her mirth behind her drink as Angela continued to frown. “Another?” she asked when she noticed Angela’s empty glass.

“I shouldn’t, it’s getting late.” Angela said.

“Gods it is, isn’t it? I completely lost track of time. We should get back,” Fareeha said as she quickly gathered up her things. “I promised the guard I’d have you back by nine.”

Morrison had specifically told the base’s security that Angela was expressly forbidden from leaving the base. She had been mortified when Fareeha launched into a tirade at the solider on duty, demanding that he let her out. Eventually the guard had caved under Fareeha’s pressure and had reluctantly let Angela go under the condition that she be back before his shift was over.

The walk back to base was far colder than Angela had expected and despite the alcohol’s warm glow she was soon shivering.

“You should take this.” Fareeha said as she took off her jacket and offered it to the blond.

“Thankyou” Angela said quietly. Normally she would have put up more of a fight but she was too cold to be polite. She was surprised by the jacket’s warmth as she put it on, Fareeha had only been wearing it for a few moments but it was already quite toasty. Inwardly she wondered if Fareeha was just a naturally warm person to begin with.

“So I was thinking we start with shooting tomorrow morning” Fareeha said as the base came into view or at least the lit guard post did. “Then maybe some light PT in the afternoon. You’ll still be behind everyone but you won’t be…”

“Useless?” Angela finished the sentence for the slightly hesitant woman.

“Well I wasn’t going to say useless” Fareeha said with a nervous laugh. “You’re just new at this is all”

“Fareeha its fine, I am pretty useless” she laughed.

The base guard opened the gate as they approached and said nothing that they were late, obviously slightly drunk or that Angela was wearing Fareeha’s jacket.

“Thankyou for tonight, it was nice. After what happened I never thought I’d get to enjoy a meal with someone again.” Angela said as they approached their hut.

“We’ll have to do it again sometime” Fareeha smiled.

The barracks was still and dark as the two women entered. Even with the lights on it was eerily quiet. She clutched Fareeha’s jacket tighter as she paused in the doorway.

“Are you going to be alright out here by yourself?” Fareeha asked, apparently sensing Angela’s hesitation.

“I’ll be fine.” Angela nodded. “It’s never been this quiet before.”

“Well you know where I am if you need me.” Fareeha smiled. “Goodnight Angela.”

“Goodnight” Angela said as Fareeha shut the door to her private quarters. As she walked the length of the barracks towards her bed she realised that she still had Fareeha’s jacket. She knew that she should return it but instead she kept it, laying it on her bed to use as a second blanket.

As she climbed into bed she wondered what the next day might bring. Would Fareeha make her train hard or would she be kind? And what constituted ‘light pt’? Would she have to run the assault course? At least there would be only one person to watch her fail. Whatever the case she, like most nights, felt wholly unprepared for whatever the new day would bring.

\---

Fareeha was an early riser, she had been since before she joined the navy. Her mother, when she had been around had always insisted that she be awake early as to not miss a second of the day. She was thankful for this habit as it had made the adjustment to navy life less of a shock than it had been for some. Even though it was a weekend and she was technically on leave she was still up with the sun. She looked out her window and frowned at what she saw; frost upon the ground. Coming from a country primarily dominated by sand she was not fond of or used to the extreme cold. Were it not for the wine she had drunk the night before she wouldn’t have considered giving Angela her jacket.

With a disappointed sigh she turned away from the window and the cold to begin her morning routine, a simple workout to ready herself for the day. She felt better once she was warm and limber, the cold didn’t seem like such a formidable foe. A quick glance at her clock revealed that were this a normal day they would be behind schedule. As quietly as she could she peeked out of her room and looked down the barracks. As she suspected in the furthest away bed she could make out Angela’s blond hair poking out from her blankets. She decided to let the woman sleep a little longer, she would get her armour on first and make a trip to the mess first.

Her armour protected her from the worst of the cold as she walked across the base towards the mess, the frost crunching under her boots as she did. She took a childish delight at the feeling and the boot prints she left behind. With the base effectively abandoned for the weekend the mess was bare, they would be making their own meals if they wanted something other than MREs for the next two days. She made a pot of coffee, pouring it into two thermoses before returning to the barracks.

As she expected her medic was still asleep when she returned. She didn’t awaken when Fareeha wiped her boots, set her weapon in her quarters or when she walked towards her bed. She couldn’t quiet place the feeling she felt when she saw her jacket clutched tightly in the blonde’s arms as she slept.

“Come on, time to wake up” she said gently, urging the other woman to wake from her slumber. She quietly laughed to herself at the annoyed noise Angela made as she rolled away from the noise. “Come on Angela it’s time to wake up, we have a big day ahead of us.” This time it worked and Angela’s head emerged from beneath the covers. “There you are” she laughed. “Good morning. I got you some coffee, I wasn’t sure how you take it.” she said as she handed the bleary eyed woman her drink.

“Strong” Angela said quietly as she gratefully took the warm thermos.

“I’ll let you get dressed. We’ll have a quick breakfast then it’s off to the shooting range.”

\---

Angela still felt uncomfortable holding a gun, the weight in her hands was still foreign to her despite her carrying one around for the past week. She stood poised on the firing line looking down the sights towards the paper target beyond.

“Good, good. That’s how I always want you to stand.” Fareeha said proudly next to her. They had been at the range for almost 30 minutes working on Angela’s stance. Despite Angela’s difficultly in standing correctly Fareeha had been extremely patient with her. “Just…” she took a step closer and helped guide the weapon’s stock into Angela’s shoulder. “Perfect. How does that feel?”

“Better I suppose” Angela said.

“You’ll get the hang of it. Why don’t you try firing off a few rounds?” Fareeha suggested.

Angela braced herself against the weapon as she tried to remember all that Fareeha had told her over breakfast. She steadied her breathing as she had been told and squeezed the trigger. She let out a yelp of surprise when the weapon’s recoil struck her shoulder while down range a cloud of dust was kicked up to the right of the target. She sighed as she lowered the weapon.

“Don’t worry about it” Fareeha said kindly. “Why don’t we try something else. Take off your helmet and put this on.” She said and handed Angela hearing protectors. “Go back into your stance, same target.”

Angela did as she was instructed and took aim at the target once more. She froze up when Fareeha stood behind her and placed her hands on her arms and shoulders.

“Just relax, control your breathing and squeeze.” Fareeha said smoothly.

This time Angela didn’t flinch when she fired, she was too focused on Fareeha’s body holding hers.

“Well done!” Fareeha cheered.

Still feeling slightly dazed Angela looked at her target and the new hole that had been punched a few centimetres from the centre. “I hit it?”

“You did! now try it again without me helping you.”

Although she was less accurate without Fareeha holding her, Angela slowly improved. With Fareeha’s helpful comments and the occasional guiding hand soon Angela was able to hit the target reliably.

“I’m going to fire off a few rounds myself. Just try to ignore me and focus on what I taught you.”

\---

Angela was feeling exhausted by the time she made it back to the barracks at the end of the day. After the shooting range Fareeha had taken her to the assault course. Fareeha had been kind enough to let her run though the obstacles slowly and without most of her equipment but even with this assistance she still struggled. It was clearly evident to both her and Fareeha that only time would improve her fitness.

“How do you feel?” Fareeha asked as she slid Angela her dinner. They were seated in the empty mess hall feeling quite small in such a large room intended for the whole platoon.

“Sore”. Like most days her legs, back, chest and shoulders hurt but for once she didn’t feel overwhelmed by it all. “Does it ever get easier?”

“Not really” Fareeha laughed before beginning her meal. “As soon as you master one thing it’s on to the next” she explained with a mouth full of food. “You made great progress today. You’ll make even more tomorrow.”

“Thankyou lieutenant, for everything.” Angela said as she started her food.

“Fareeha is fine when it’s just us.”

\---

Once more Jack found himself standing on the parade ground looking out over his assembled platoon. He still couldn’t escape the feeling of pride he felt the first time he had seen his men and women formed up like this.

He had been glad to see that most troopers had been sensible during their two days of freedom. He hadn’t received any reports from the military police about their behaviour and all had arrived clean and sober when he had called them to muster at 5am.

Today was an important day in ODST history as today marked the beginning of their drop pod training, something he had been looking forward to with only some trepidation. After his visit to Winston in London he had returned to the Thornhill training base to prepare a training program that would span his remaining weeks of training time. Although he didn’t go in search of them he was sure that Fareeha and Angela had been avoiding him although he was unsure who feared him more.

Beside him stood his right hand man; McCree and on the other two new arrivals. These new arrivals were representative from naval research and development, they were the foremost experts in the drop pods design and use. He found it slightly unsettling that his men would be the first human subjects put into these pods.

“I hope you all enjoyed your weekend off because things are about to get a whole lot harder” he began. “Today marks the first day of our drop pod training. Over these next few weeks you will learn how to drop from a ship in orbit down to the battlefield, something that has never been done before. We will start with the theory and the simulations so that you all have a firm understanding of how to control your decent. Then once you have done that we will move on to the real thing. First each of you will complete a solo drop into a field. Your second drop will be in fire teams. The third and final drop will be a simulated combat drop involving the whole platoon. Upon completion you will be considered combat ready and a graduate of drop school.” He turned to McCree to take over and give the platoon their orders.

“These fine gentlemen are from RnD” McCree said motioning to the two new arrivals. “They will be running the ground theory over the next few days. Alpha your classroom will be the mess hall, Bravo you’re in the armoury. School starts now ladies and gentlemen, pay attention to these two as I can assure you it will save your life. Fall out!”

\---

When the instructors unveiled a model of one of the pods her squad would be falling to earth in Fareeha unlike the rest of her squad frowned. The model she now held in her hands was completely unlike what she had been expecting. The night before under the cover of darkness she had snuck out from her room to the armoury to finally get a peek at the prototype that was being kept there. For such an important program she found the security woefully inadequate as it consisted of locked fence and a blue tarp held down with rocks. Hidden away beneath this almost impervious security tarp was a sleek black pod, slightly larger than a human shaped into a raindrop. What she now held in her hand was almost like a raindrop if the designer had been forbidden from using anything but straight lines. This pod if the model was to be believed was also larger and harsh looking with an industrial feel.

“I present to you the Single Occupant Exo-atmospheric Insertion Vehicle” The instructor said proudly. “Or SOEIV for short, is a human re-entry vehicle that will get you and your gear from ship to shore.”

“How does it work?” one of the braver troopers asked, most were too afraid to find out.

“I’m glad you asked!” the instructor replied enthusiastically as he brought up a diagram on the wall. “As you can see there are three stages to deployment. The launch, transition and then the landing phases. The launch phase is simple. Once you have boarded your pod and following a countdown the ship will release the pod. At this moment the pod will automatically fire its booster rockets to launch you towards the ground. As you enter the atmosphere the ablative plating on the underside of the pod will begin to burn away as you aero brake.” As he said this he changed the image to one of a flaming object rapidly falling to earth much to the horror of all present. “I can assure you that this is totally normal and safe” he was quick to add to little effect. “Once the pod has entered the atmosphere it will deploy a metal drag shoot. This will stabilise the craft and slow it considerably. At a height of approximately 100 meters the pod’s retro thrusters will fire slowing the pod to a safe landing speed.” The instructor finished by showing a picture of one of the test pods lodged firmly into the singed earth.

“How do we get out?” Fareeha asked after a moment of stunned silence.

“Explosive bolts!” the instructor said with joy. “Most of the front panelling will detach allowing for a speedy exit. All at the touch of a button.”

“At least it will be easy to burry us” Fareeha heard a trooper behind her whisper to his friend. “The hole will be half dug and we’re already in our coffins.”

\---

Fareeha sat at her desk pouring over her technical manual like she had done every night for the past week. There was so much information she could barely make sense of it all. Everything seemed both simple and complicated at the same time. The past few days in the simulator had done little to explain things. The sim only allowed her to practice procedural things such as ensuring the door was properly sealed, operate the communications suite and the like. It had done very little to teach her the more practical things such as manual control and steering not to mention the emergency procedures. When she had asked one of the instructors what to do in an emergency he had shrugged and stated simply “if something is wrong with the ablative plating you’ll burn up on re-entry and if the retro-boosters or the drag chute fail you’ll be going too fast to survive. Its probably best not to think about it.” Of course since he had said that it was the only thing Fareeha could think about.

It seemed that a fiery and terrifying end was also the minds of Fareeha’s squad. Since their first introduction to the SOEIV she had received a form to update their navy life insurance policies from almost every trooper. The only ones that hadn’t were the squad’s only orphan who had originally joined the navy to avoid a prison term and her medic who it seemed also didn’t have any beneficiaries.

Fareeha was just about to give up on the technical manual to move onto her own life insurance paperwork when there was a stiff knock at her door. She stood at attention as Morrison entered her small private quarters. “Sir”.

“At ease lieutenant. How are you finding it?” Morrison asked, nodding to the book laid out on her small desk.

“Fine sir” Fareeha lied.

“Good” Morrison nodded. “The Gibraltar is leaving the Tether as we speak and will be overhead in a few hours. I want to start the live drops tomorrow morning so I want six names on my desk before lights out.” He said sternly.

“Only six sir?”

Jack nodded. “Pick whomever you like from your squad. I don’t care how you pick them” he said before leaving.

Six names. How does one begin to think about choosing six people to do a thing like this, to be one of the first six humans to fall from orbit in a tin can and survive. She found a scrap piece of paper and titled it _stick one_. The first name was perhaps the easiest, her own. She couldn’t in good conscious ask anyone in her squad to do something as dangerous as this if she was unwilling to do it herself. Besides, being named the first ODST might go a long way in separating herself from her mother’s legacy. Next she decided that it would be fairest to ask for volunteers. With a heavy heart she took her empty list out into the barracks proper.

Most of alpha were in the barracks already. Some were cleaning gear and weapons while sharing crude jokes and stories. Others huddled in small groups or pairs going over their reading material. Of those that were absent Fareeha expected they would be outside at the firing range or the assault course blowing off steam and honing their skills.

“Alight everyone listen up, once we’re all here I have something important to say.” She nodded to the closest trooper who quickly rushed off to gather up the others. Once everyone was present she begun. “We’re starting the training drops tomorrow morning.” A murmur rippled through the squad as some made a quiet comment to their neighbour. “We are only starting with a stick of six so I need five volunteers to accompany me.” She said. “I think I speak for everyone here when I say no one will think less of you if you don’t volunteer. What we’re about to do is insanely dangerous and while I’m glad no one has asked to drop out I would have no issues with anyone wanting to wait to see how this pans out before they climb into a pod. Come see me before lights out if you want to be on the list. If I don’t have enough names ill draw them out of a hat. That is all.” She watched as the squad dispersed back towards their bunks, each man and woman’s mind deep in reflection. Fareeha managed to catch her medic’s blue eyes staring at her. She caught herself smiling as the blond approached.

“What’s up?” Fareeha asked as she led Angela into her quarters.

“I’d like to jump with you tomorrow.”

Of all the things Angela could have said to her this was quiet possibly the last thing she might have guessed. “Oh” was all she could manage as a response. “Are… Are you sure?”

“No” Angela said. “I’m terrified of dropping for real but… I’m not sure I’d be able to do it if you weren’t there with me.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t be part of one of the later drops” Fareeha said as she sat down on the edge of her bed.

Angela did the same. There was little room on the bed so their bodies slightly touched. Had the blond looked up from her hands in her lap she might have noticed Fareeha’s sudden awkwardness. “I don’t think I would be able to get in the pod without you there and I don’t know what I might do if I made it down alive. I want to do this with you.”

“Ok” Fareeha found herself saying. “We’ll drop together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy I cant wait to write the next chapter. Things will start picking up both plot wise and birb wise, I promise.


	8. Falling from the tops

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually hit my target date for once :)

Three men and three women sat together in the otherwise empty mess hall. Breakfast was over so the rest of the platoon had left to begin their march to a nearby field under Morrison’s stern gaze.

Fareeha felt immensely proud of the people she was now sitting with. When she had asked for volunteers the evening before, they had all stepped forward to request the honour of being a part of the first ODST drop. To her left were her two fire team leaders sergeants Krakow and Webster. They had come to see her soon after Angela to ask to join the drop. She was proud to know that the two people she needed to be able to rely on most in battle were not ones to shy away from a challenge. She had however been slightly concerned if also slightly amused when each fire team leader had pitched their troopers against the others’ in a squad wide tug of war for the prize of being the second to drop, Fareeha had reserved the first for herself. After the match, much to their disappointment she had announced that her medic would be taking the second pod.

Beside her fire team leaders sat corporal Williams, an otherwise unremarkable product of the recruitment depot. Although she tried to learn a little about each of the troopers under her command Williams had slipped between the cracks by virtue of being neither an excellent trooper nor a terrible one. The only thing she knew for sure about the woman was that she was never found far from Private Lee who even now sat next to her. Lee was a capable solider if still a little green. With the right training and guidance she could see him moving quickly up the ranks.

Rounding out the group of six volunteers was Angela whose presence had surprised everyone. Upon hearing the news that Angela would be a part of the first drop most assumed it was all talk and that she wouldn’t be able to go through with it when presented with the pod. Others believed it to be a stunt designed to improve her standing within the unit. Although they claimed that such an act would have no impact on how they felt about the medic and her lacklustre soldiering skills Fareeha believed otherwise.

  
“I never asked lieutenant, do you have any family?” Krakow asked. He had just finished telling everyone about his four younger siblings at Fareeha’s request. “I know about you mother but…” his usually confidant voice trailed off.

“My father moved out to the Rossmax colony when I joined up. Ana was already declared dead by then.” She explained. “I send him a mail once or twice a month when I have the time.” her most recent message was already almost three months old, well before her transfer into the ODST unit. “What about you Zeigler?”

“No one” the blond shook her head. “I was an only child and my parents have since passed on. I do have a…”

Silence fell over the small group as the distant sound of a pelican’s engines reached them. “Alright people” Fareeha said as she stood up, taking her weapon in one hand and her helmet in the other. “It’s not too late to step out.” She was pleased when the other five mimicked her actions, if a little more hesitantly. “Alright, let’s go make history.”

The small group left the mess and made their way towards the parade ground just in time for their ride to appear over head. The pelican flew a lazy obit around the base before softly landing. As the group approached the craft its pilot inexplicably flared the engines, not enough to lift off but enough to kick up dirt in their direction. When Fareeha looked at the cockpit for an explanation the pilot looked at her briefly from behind their flight helmet’s visor before returning their focus back to her instruments. She made a mental note of the pilot’s name as she passed by the cockpit; _F/O Oxton_.

Fareeha boarded first but remained at the edge of the ramp, helping each trooper up into the craft. Williams, Lee, Webster, Krakow and Ziegler each name would be emblazoned next to hers in the history books, for better or worse. With everyone seated and secure she gave the pilot the signal that they were ready. She had only a moment to get in her seat before the pilot made an abrupt and jerky take off.

“Careful there LT, you’re not supposed to jump out yet.” Webster laughed as Fareeha recovered from an almost premature drop out the back of the craft.

“What the hell is this guy’s problem? Want me to have a word with them boss?” Krakow asked, cracking his knuckles for effect.

“Let’s wait until we’re aboard the Gibraltar before we start abusing our pilot.” Fareeha said.

The flight would be a quick one, with the Gibraltar in a low earth orbit they didn’t have very far to go. A flight as routine as they come which was why Fareeha was confused when she noticed Angela leaning forward in her seat, her head turned towards the open cockpit door.

“Everything alright?” she asked as she up her hand on her medic’s shoulder, startling her. “Are you feeling sick?”

“What? No” Angela shook her head. “Well a little bit. It’s just I’ve never left earth before, I wanted to see” she said quietly.

“Oh” Fareeha said with surprise. At this point leaving earth was not something people gave much thought. Fareeha had known of many people in her youth that lived on earth but worked on one of the many tethered stations anchored around Alexandra. She had been to Mars as a child for a holiday during one of her mother’s rare periods of leave. “If the pilot was in a better mood I’d tell you to go up there for a better look. I know you don’t want to hear it but you’ll get a better view on the way down” she nervously laughed.

Soon out of the darkness of space a ship came into view; the HMS Gibraltar. The territory class frigate was considered by most to be somewhat of an oddity and was often mistaken by less experienced ship watchers as a light cruiser due to its size and armament. The Gibraltar was one of eight ships and was the second off the production line. Its sister ships the HMS Falklands, Malta and Ascension were still in service while St Helena, Anguilla and Montserrat had been scrapped. HMS Belgium, the last of territory class ships had been lost with all hands in a tragic accident. The territory class had been designed during the second wave of naval expansion. While the first wave had focused on maximising range and exploration capabilities at the expense of armament and defensive capability the second wave had come following a change in naval doctrine that dictated that ships should be capable of conducting large fleet engagements. This period had been brief and the subsequent doctrine placed naval ships in a defensive role tasked with escorting civilian ships and conducting patrols.

The transport entered the ship’s hanger and parked next to the only other transport. As everyone disembarked Fareeha looked about the hanger. It was far smaller than she had expected for a ship of such size, it had only enough room for about four craft by her reckoning.

“Oi!” a voice yelled from inside the craft.

Hey turned to find the pilot standing at the head of the ramp pointing to one of the exits.

“Get a move on then” They said before moving back into their craft.

“What _is_ their problem?” Fareeha heard Webster ask as they walked across the empty hanger towards the indicated door.

As they approached the doors opened to allow a woman to pass though into the hanger. The new arrival wore an officer’s uniform and the insignia of a lieutenant. As the group approached her they saw her make her final adjustments to her uniform and tuck a few stray red hairs beneath her hat. “You must be the ODSTs” she said with an accent that caught Fareeha off guard, a strange mix German with something else European mixed in. “We’ve been expecting you.”

“Lieutenant Amari” Fareeha and her team stopped in front of the navy lieutenant and saluted. Although Fareeha and this officer held the same rank as they were currently aboard a ship navy officers outranked marine officers like her.

“Lieutenant Brigitte Lindhold” the woman replied. “Allow me to be the first to welcome you to the Gibraltar. If you’ll follow me ill lead you to the pod room.”

“Thankyou” Fareeha said as they set off into the ship. As they walked through the ship she was surprised at how few people were about. For a ship of this size and complement it was a comparative ghost town.

“Is your pilot always in such a bad mood?” Webster asked.

“Oxton? She’s been in a foul mood all morning, she’s usually quiet nice.” Brigitte said as she led them down another corridor. “I think she’s still annoyed with you lot.”

“What did we do to her? We just got here.”

“You got half of her friends booted off the ship.” Brigitte replied. “The modifications to the ship cut the flight crew down from twelve to four. I’ve been aboard for weeks and she only just started talking to me.”

“You’re not a part of the original crew?” Fareeha asked.

“I’m part of Captain Wilhelm’s retinue. I came aboard to oversee the retrofit. Most the crew are a part of the old crew.” Brigitte explained. “Some of the older members of the crew served with the captain on past deployments so the transition hasn’t been too bad. Although I think some are a little sore that you guys bumped the marine complement out too.” she said as they came to a stop at a door. “This is the pod room” she said opening the door to allow the crew in.

The room was more like a corridor, long but not wide for its length. The most striking part of the room was the raised section in the middle and the holographic table upon it. Around it facing out were a number of screens and other displays, a place to conduct briefings to be sure. Along the wall next to the door they had entered though were rack of weapons and equipment, at least that’s what would be there if they had been stocked, the same was true for the other end. Along the length of the room on both sides were the pods. To be able to service a whole ODST platoon a second row was placed above the first reachable by a gangway that ran the length of the room on both sides.

“Your quarters are elsewhere.” Brigitte said. “But we don’t have time for a full tour I’m afraid, your commander was most insistent that you move quickly. He is a rather unpleasant man is he not?”

The crew mumbled in agreement as they continued to be awed by the room.

“I’ll leave you to it. I trust you can find you own way back.” Brigitte laughed before leaving them with a polite nod to Fareeha.

Suddenly Fareeha felt that all eyes were on her.  Her team had all had their visors blacked out since their arrival on board but she knew they were looking to her for guidance and anything to calm their nerves. “Everyone go find a chair, I’ll let everyone on the ground know that we’re ready.” She said.

Fareeha found her pod and settled in, patching her radio into the on-board suite. “Thornhill this is Gibraltar” she said with a slightly shaky voice.

“Go ahead Gibraltar” the platoon’s cool and calm radio operator Lucio said.

“We will be dropping shortly. Out” she said. She took a deep composing breath before exiting. She stood tall and strode as confidently as she could down the line of pods.

In the pod beside her own was her medic. Although she couldn’t see the blonde’s face she could tell that she was terrified.

“I’m just going to go see the others” Fareeha said stopping in front of Angela’s pod. “I’ll see you before we drop. You’re doing great” she added. She then went down the line to each of the other pods to make sure everyone was ready and to calm any last minute nerves. With each person seen to she returned to Angela’s pod.

“All set?” she asked as she leant into Angela’s pod. She was pleased that Angela had properly secured her weapon in its clamps and was comfortable in her seat. “I’ll be right there when you land and I’ll be on the radio the whole way down. You can do this.” she said.

The other woman took a shaky breath and nodded. Fareeha knew that her medic was likely crying behind her visor but she said nothing, the fact that despite it all she was holding it together was progress.

She realised how claustrophobic her pod was when she climbed inside. The walls seemed also closer than they had in the simulator and the seat more enveloping. With a deep breath she flipped the last few switches to bring her pod to life and bring down the door, seeling her in.

“Everyone ready?” she asked over the radio to which she received 5 responses of varying confidence. “Alright then” she said to herself quietly as she hit the ready switch. The trainers had been vague as to what this switch did so she as well as her team were surprised when their pods suddenly slid backwards on what felt like rails. Following the sounds of large doors opening and closing the pods rotated to reveal that they now hung from the ship, the bottom of the ship having opened to allow them to fall to the earth below.

Fareeha cracked a smile when Webster whistled over the radio. “I hope no one is afraid of heights. Quite the view though”

“I’m sorry your first view of earth from orbit wasn’t under better circumstances” Fareeha said on her private channel to Angela.

“It’s certainly memorable” Angela replied nervously.

“I’m setting an interval of thirty seconds between each pod” Fareeha said as she configured her computer to carry out the order. “Good luck everyone, I’ll see you all down there.” She said before flicking the final switch to start the countdown.

Three lights next to her left display begun lighting up

_Red_

_Red_

_Green_

For a moment she was weightless, simply hanging in space as the ship released its grasp on her, a second of tranquillity before the chaos that was to come. With her pod released the main engine fired launching out of the ships belly down towards the earth below. It was a wild ride as she knocked, bumped and otherwise shaken as the pod picked up speed, its manoeuvring thrusters knocked her from one side of the pod to the other as it struggled under the acceleration to keep on course. Just as suddenly as it had started the main engine shut itself down bringing silence and stillness to Fareeha’s world. Finally she could take a breath and observe her surroundings.

Quite simply the view was breath taking. Fareeha looked out at the curvature of the earth in front of her and its blue glow. In the darkness above she could see the Gibraltar as it rapidly became smaller. All around it were other fading ships, it seemed that word of the first ODST drop had drawn a crowd. In the distance she spotted the new battle cruiser Repulse, how she wished to see it up close. Below her sitting on the edge of space were two rapidly approaching destroyers. She didn’t recognise the shapes but as her pod passed between them she could clearly read their names; HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Hobart, some of the oldest serving ships in the navy.

Slowly the quiet faded as she begun to enter the atmosphere. The shaking and bumping returned as the air became thicker. She quickly realised how hot her craft was getting as soon flames and a red glow became visible outside. As the turbulence and heat continued to increase she said a quiet prayer, drowned out by the roar of the wind outside. An almighty crash knocked her forward as the pod’s drag chute deployed and instantly begun to slow her down and stabilise her decent. A quick glance at her display showed that she was on course, it was as if her pod had been guided back to earth on a string it was so precise.

She risked another quick look down. The green earth was closer than she had thought and it was coming up to meet her at an alarming rate. Just when she thought it was too late and that she would surely be killed the pod rapidly decelerated before finally crashing into the ground.

Silence, for the first time in what felt like hours Fareeha was alone with the sound of her own breathing in her helmet. Slowly the door slid open to reveal the lush green field beyond it. Her ears were ringing and her whole body felt numb, she felt like she was floating as she took her first tentative steps onto what felt like an alien world. With both of her feet on the muddy soil her senses returned to her. Still slightly dazed she turned back to her pod. The grass around it was scorched and it was buried a foot or two into the mud but it was in one piece. She turned away from the creaking pod and cooling pod towards the field’s nearest boundary. Behind the wall in an almost identical state of shock stood the platoon, looking at her as if she was some sort of alien.

Suddenly there was an almighty roar as a second pod pierced the sky before crashing into the ground. After a beat of silence and calm the doors slid open and a black clad figure tumbled out onto the ground. The figure took off its helmet and tossed it aside to reveal a blond head of hair. Angela remained on her hands and knees for a moment before suddenly and un-ceremonially throwing up onto the grass.

“Angela!” she gasped as she rushed to her medic’s side. “Are you alright?” she asked as put herself between the medic and the rest of the platoon.

“I’m fine” Angela said as she wiped her mouth. She let Fareeha help her to her feet. “I’m still shaking.”

“That will be the adrenaline, it…” whatever it was Fareeha was about to say was drowned out by the loud and sudden arrival of the third pod. “Maybe we should move” she suggested as sergeant Krakow stumbled out of his pod.

\---

 Six black clad figures sat perched on a low stone wall early one morning. They looked out over the dull grey Scottish morning at a farm’s field. Unlike the surrounding land the field bore no crops, only lush green grass, it also sported six deep holes at regular intervals and muddy tire tracks leading from the gate to the holes and back.

Angela sat at the end of the line with her helmet by her side and her weapon by her feet propped up against the wall. Beside her sat, Fareeha a woman she had jumped from the heavens for. Yesterday’s drop was still fresh in her mind and today the rest of the platoon would be going through what she had done.

“One minute till drop” she heard from the radio in Fareeha’s hand.

She had been terrified during her drop. She had yelled, cried and sworn until her throat was raw all the way down until her embarrassing landing. But after the sickness had faded and the adrenaline worn off she had been left with a feeling of joy and pride that remained with her even now. Others had expressed their pride in her too. She and the other five volunteers had been hailed as heroes by the rest of the platoon. Men and women who hours earlier wouldn’t have given her the time of day had cheered for her and shared in her joy. Although it had been brief as soon the platoon was tasked with assisting the clean up and then resuming their training schedule she had for the first time felt accepted by the group. Her proudest moment had come that night just before lights out when Fareeha had called her into her quarters. Once they were alone Fareeha had surprised her with a crushing hug.

“I still can’t believe you did it” Fareeha had said when they finally parted. “I’m so proud of you. I know you’re not here by choice but what you did was amazing.” She had then renewed her promise to somehow get Angela’s name cleared and for the first time Angela actually believed that she might be able to.

“Should we tell them what the ready switch does?” Webster asked.

“Nah” Fareeha laughed. “It will be a nice surprise for them like it was for us.”

“So when is our next drop LT?” Williams asked.

“Tomorrow morning” Fareeha sighed. “I’ll brief everyone tonight after I’ve spoken with Morrison. From what he’s told me we’ll be dropping in squads. Everyone at more or less the same time.”

“Five seconds” reported the radio.

“What’s the bet one of them pukes in their helmet?”

\---

Angela sat in the back row of the mess hall with the rest of her squad seated in front of her. At the front of the hall stood her squad leader beside a large display.

“This will be tomorrow’s drop zone” Fareeha explained in a commanding voice as she brought up an aerial photo. “Some of the more keen eyes amongst you might recognise these farm building as the ones that Bravo assaulted during the previous night exercise.”

Angela would have to take Fareeha’s word for it. All she could remember of the night was running around a dark forest feeling lost and petrified before almost being killed.

“As the rest of the platoon will be using the field we dropped in this morning I have asked for this alternate site. I have also requested that there be an occupying force be waiting for us when we land.”

A hushed and excited whisper quickly spread throughout the group, they would be making a combat drop.

“It will only be light resistance” Fareeha said in an attempt to dampen her squad’s excitement. “But it should be a good learning experience. We will need to learn how to come out of our pod’s fighting.”

“Will the other squad be facing resistance on their drop?” a voice in the crowd asked.

“Just us” Fareeha said with a broad grin. “Now here’s how I want us to land; Krakow you and your team will be landing here, just north of the farm house. You are to clear it and secure it. Webster your team gets the two barns on the south side. Once you’ve cleared those I want you to set up covering the main approach down the road. Zeigler and I will be landing with Krakow to assist with clearing the house. Once the compound is secure we’ll prepare for the possibility of a counter attack and wait for pick up. We’ll be using birds from the Gibraltar so I think we’ll be made to wait.” She said to the laugher of the assembled squad.

“Can we expect a counter attack?”

Fareeha laughed and shook her head. “I asked the mission makers to surprise us. It could be one farmer with a pitchfork or it could be an armoured company, we’ll just have to wait and see.” She said. “You are free to do what you like until lights out. Krakow and Webster I’d like a word with you before you go.”

Angela stood up with the rest of the squad and followed them outside. Everyone was excitedly discussing tomorrow’s operation. Already they were theorising what it would be like to drop straight into combat. They wondered how they would coordinate and find their comrades. Would they attack their objectives as soon as they land or should they regroup first? The conversation and discussion continued into the barracks where people broke off into smaller groups.

No one had asked Angela for her opinion and she soon found herself alone once again. She was becoming used to this as she walked back to her bunk. She began her evening routine of taking her armour off and cleaning it. It wasn’t so much that it was dirty but it kept her busy for a few minutes. She frowned as she always did when she came to her damaged shoulder plate. The scared and dented armour was still clearly visible, a chilling reminder how close she had come to death. She had been assured by the armorer that the damage hadn’t compromised the armour’s integrity so any request for a replacement had been denied. Fareeha had told her not to worry about the dent, claiming it added character. With her armour cleaned she set it neatly at the foot of her bed, in easy reach should a surprise night exercise be called or if Morrison suddenly requested her presence so that she could be made to run the assault course solo as punishment.

Fareeha and the team leaders returned shortly after she was finished. The team leaders were soon surrounded and hounded by their troopers who were desperate for more information. Angela remained on the periphery of the chaos until she caught her lieutenant staring at her from across the room. Fareeha frowned for a moment when she realised she was caught but after a moment she smiled and nodded towards her private quarters.

Angela was beginning to enjoy these little evening chats with Fareeha. Since opening up to her during the night exercise talking with Fareeha had an almost therapeutic benefit. Simply it was nice to talk with someone regularly, even if it was mostly about work.

“Did you want to see me?” Angela asked as she awkwardly waited in Fareeha’s doorway.

“Always” Fareeha said warmly “Come in. What did you think of the briefing?”

“Everyone seemed very excited” Angela said as she took her customary spot on Fareeha’s bed while the other woman remained seated at her desk.

“But not you?” Fareeha asked with concern.

“I’m not a soldier like all of you. I don’t look forward to the prospect of violence.” Angela said.

“It’s just training” Fareeha reasoned. “I don’t think anyone want to go into combat for real. I’ve seen real combat and I’m in no hurry to return to it.”

“Then why stay in the navy?” Angela worried if she might have stepped too far when she saw Fareeha’s expression.

“Because it’s what’s expected of me” Fareeha said with a twinge of sadness. “Everyone expects me to live up to my mother’s legacy.”

“I don’t know who your mother is.”

“Then you must be one of the few” Fareeha laughed. “I don’t know if hero is the right word but she was certainly treated as one.”

“What did she do?” Angela asked.

“What didn’t she do?” Fareeha laughed. “Sole survivor of the Nivea colony massacre, youngest person to be promoted to marine captain in the navy, best marksman in the fleet, decorated veteran of the first police action and she was one of the first recruits of the overwatch program”

Angela was surprised by the bitterness at which Fareeha listed off her mother’s accolades. She was also surprised at the mention of the overwatch program. She had read about the failed and eventually ruled illegal super soldier program during medical school. “She was in overwatch?”

Fareeha nodded. “She went missing during one of their ops; there was an ambush during a VIP extraction. They never found her body.”

The overwatch program was a dark smudge on the navy’s record. What had started out as a research program into possible improvement into the standard naval diet evolved slowly into a full-fledged super soldier program and special ops unit. It was no secret that the program existed, the soldiers were publicly paraded around the empire after each successful op. They were instrumental in the clean-up operations after the first police action. However once it was discovered that the program was keeping two sets of books and the full extent of the genetic modifications were revealed it was quickly shut down and its victims returned to other units.

“I was two days away from turning 18 when she went missing. I hadn’t seen her in over two years before then.” Fareeha said sadly. “The next day a captain from the local garrison came to my house with an offer from the navy. They’d send me to any military academy I wanted, anywhere in the empire. I’d likely be a major by now if I had. Instead I turned him down and went down to the local recruitment depot. Two days later I was in boot camp.”

“I’m sorry” Angela said.

“Its not your fault” Fareeha sighed. “I’m not even sure why I told you all that. I guess you’re just easy to talk to. On to happier things? What do you think of this?” She handed Angela a piece of paper from her desk.

Angela studied the paper closely. It was a drawing of one of their drop pods in profile. It wasn’t very detailed and she assumed it was more akin to a symbol.

“I’ve been thinking about my tattoos.” Fareeha explained. “I was going to use that as a marker, one for each drop we do.”

Angela nodded as she continued to look at Fareeha’s drawing. “It would look good with the others. You’re very talented.”

“Thanks” Fareeha smiled. “Hopefully Morrison will give us a day or two after we finishing training so I can make the trip to London to get it done. You should come with me, you can get yours done too.”

“Mine?” Angela gasped.

“Yeah! We’re all getting them. This is a new unit so we get to set the traditions.” Fareeha smiled. "Besides, I going to design you a special one too." 

“Doesn’t it hurt?” Angela asked.

“Only a little” Fareeha shrugged. “I’m usually pretty liquored up when I get mine done. It I’ll be fun.” she smiled. “Besides, they’re small and you’ll only need three by the end of training.”

“Three? No chance” Angela laughed, handing back the paper. “Thanks but no thanks” she said as she left.

“You’ll come around, just you wait!” Fareeha called out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the second to last training chapter, I promise.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey remember me?

“Now that we’re all here” Fareeha sighed as the last of her squad entered the pod room aboard the HMS Gibraltar “We can begin.” She switched on the briefing table much to the awe of her assembled squad. The table and the screens around it displayed images of the farmhouse they would be assaulting. “I know I briefed you all last night, as too did your team leaders but further details have come to light. Firstly the pod’s on board guidance has changed since our first jump. Our first jump was completed under point guidance mode which you’ll all remember from your theory classes means that it guided itself to a single predetermined point on the ground. Today we will be jumping with the guidance computer on area guided mode which means you will need to control your pod on decent. The pod will point you at the farmhouse, it’s up to you to land in the right LZ. As an added incentive there will be a punishment for those who land in the wrong spot. I think a case of beer should suffice” she said to the laugher of her squad. “We’ll be dropping in five minutes. I’ll see you all on the ground. Good luck everyone.”

With her short briefing over the squad broke up into its fire teams. She remained up on the platform to watch her team leaders give out their final instructions. Although everyone was new in their roles she was quite pleased with how quickly everyone had stepped up and taken the challenge before them in their stride. Although she hadn’t had much contact with bravo squad to compare their performance she liked to think that her squad was the better of the two.

From her perch she spotted her medic standing in front her pod looking frustrated. From her vantage point looked like she was struggling to get it open. After watching her continue to struggle for a few more moments she gathered up her gear and went down to her pod. “Need a hand, private?” she asked as she approached.

Angela looked startled and a little bit embarrassed when she realised someone had been watching her. “I can’t get it open.” She admitted ashamedly.

“That’s fine” Fareeha said kindly. “Let me try” she spotted the problem almost right away, one of the latches was not completely released. Rather than embarrasses her medic further she took her time and pretended to struggle with the door before finally opening it. “There” she said triumphantly. “Just needed to lock it then unlock it again.”

“Thankyou” Angela said as she locked her weapon in place inside the pod.

“All set?” Fareeha asked. “Any last minute questions?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Good” Fareeha smiled. “You’ll be the second pod out of the gate like last time. Just stick close to mine and land as close as you can to me. I’ll look for you when we land but if you can’t find me just get on the radio or worse case just move to the farmhouse and wait for me.”

“Ok” Angela nodded.

The lights suddenly dimmed and switched to combat lighting, bathing the room in a dull red hue. “Everyone take your seats!” Fareeha called out before putting on her helmet. Angela did the same but struggled to keep her long blond hair together despite having it tied back. “We’re going to have to do something about that aren’t we?” she joked as she helped her medic. “I’ll see you down there.” She said before entering her own pod.

She quickly settled in and switched on her radios. “Report when ready” she said. Her fire teams responded quickly, everyone was set. She couldn’t help but smile when her medic’s timid voice sounded off last in their private channel that she too was ready. “Remember; Set your door control from auto to combat” she said as her door slid shut and her pod begun sliding backwards. As the final countdown begun she steadied her breathing and braced herself for the fall.

_Red_

_Red_

_Green_

\---

Angela was not as cool or collected as her squad leader was. She gripped her control sticks hard and held on for dear life as her pod was launched out of the belly of the Gibraltar. As she was bumped and knocked around her cramped pod her eyes remained focused outside. Slightly below her and traveling at an equally terrifying speed was another pod; Fareeha’s pod. She had told herself before the drop in an effort to calm down that as long as she could see Fareeha’s pod then everything would be alright.

Her engine cut out at the same time as Fareeha’s so they entered free fall together. Although outside her pod was a vacuum it was by no means quiet. Angela’s radio was a chaotic mess of voices as other members of her squad jockeyed for position in the pack above them while their fire team leaders issued some final orders. One voice cut though them all, Fareeha’s on their private channel.

“You still with me?” Fareeha asked as they approached the upper atmosphere.

“Y…yes s…sir…” Angela stammered out.

“Good, Good” Fareeha’s calming voice replied. “I can see you above me, you’re doing great! Don’t forget to brace for the bump.”

The “bump” Fareeha was referring to was the effect deploying the drag chute had on the pod. Calling it a bump was considered by most to be an understatement. However before the bump came Angela’s least favourite part of the drop, the burn. As the air friction heated up her pod and the noise increased to an almost maddening level she fought the urge to cry out, scream or throw up.

“Target coming into view!” Angela almost didn’t hear Fareeha’s voice on the squad net above the loud crash of the chute deploying.

They continued to fall at an incredible speed. Angela only barely recognised the farmhouse from this height. She could however tell that she was on target for the right landing zone. As the ground rushed up to meet her she shut her eyes tight, braced her body against her chair and prayed that the retro rockets would fire and slow her decent.

Thankfully her rockets fired and with an almighty crash she impacted the ground.

Angela did have time to gather her thoughts, immediately following her hard landing there were four loud pops above the sound of other pods striking the earth with deep thuds. Angela let out a shriek of surprise when suddenly her door flew from it’s hinges and landed a few feet away where it firmly lodged its self in the mud. She would have remained in stunned in her pod had Fareeha’s voice not started her.

“Contacts in the courtyard!” Fareeha shouted over the radio followed by the sound of gunfire.

Angela took a deep steadying breath before taking her weapon from it’s clamps and leaping from her pod.

Around her was chaos of combat. To her sides where running bodies and falling pods, everyone was clad in almost identical black uniforms. Some held their weapons raised, pointed towards the farm buildings others had them low as they ran in that direction, all moved with determination. To her front was the farmhouse and its associated buildings. All that separated the field she now stood in and the yard was a low stone wall, one hundred meters of open ground to cover.

A firm hand suddenly gripped her arm and begun pulling her forward.

“Move Ziegler!” the solider barked as they shoved her forward towards the farm. At first she stumbled in the mud but the soldier’s strong grip kept her upright.

By the time she was running comfortably the solider was gone, mixed into the group of troopers now sprinting towards the wall. The fastest of the pack had already begun to reach the wall and were now beginning to fire at the androids standing in the open, their programing had apparently not prepared them for such a sudden assault from such a source. As she ran she spotted a trooper take a few shots before ducking back down, as they reloaded they looked up right at her.

“Do you see me?” Fareeha’s voice asked in her ear as the trooper gave a small wave. “Remember, just stay behind me” she said before finishing her reload and resuming her fire at the last survivors in the yard.

Angela was one of the last to reach the wall where Krakow and his team were stacked up. “Lets go Alpha one! On me!” Krakow roared over the sounds of combat as he vaulted over the wall and begun the assault on the farmhouse. The wall emptied out with a cheer as the team leapt over in pursuit of their leader.

“Ziegler, with me!” Fareeha’s voice pulled her from spectacle she was watching unfold, she hadn’t noticed Fareeha had moved down the wall.  “Alpha two, status?”

“All boots on the deck now, moving to assault the primary. Over”

Angela stopped as Fareeha’s black and tinted helmet turned back towards her. “You’re doing great” she told her before raising herself up and resting her weapon on the wall. “Guns up” she ordered. “Shoot anything the comes out of that building.” To their front there were the back doors of the farm’s two barns.

Sure enough, moments later as alpha two began their assault two droids burst out of one of the barns to escape. For Angela it was as if time slowed down as the lead droid entered her sights. She became acutely aware of her stance, Fareeha would be proud. Her breathing was steady and her weapon was primed. Without thinking she pulled the trigger. The gun leapt up but she was ready for the recoil. As it became too much she let go as she had been taught. She brought her sights down on the second and did the same.

The moment she stopped firing there was a shout beside her that frightened her. For a moment she feared something awful must have happened or that she had done something wrong. A bolt of fear stuck her for a moment before suddenly two strong arms wrapped around her side.

“You did it!” Fareeha shouted in glee. Angela was crouched in an awkward position and the sudden addition of Fareeha’s weight put her off balance sending them both to the ground. “Sorry” Fareeha laughed as she helped Angela up. “You got them both!” she said with pride. “You did everything just as I taught you!”

“Thanks” Angela replied sheepishly. She was thankful for her helmet and its dark visor as it hid her blush. “You were a good teacher.”

“Come on” Fareeha said with a nod towards the farm house. “There is more to be done.”

\---

Following the second training drop morale within the unit was at an all-time high. Alpha was ecstatic with their drop’s success and Bravo was filled with a determination to best them. The loss of the HMS Rival had at the time put a dampener on their spirits was now another source of motivation, especially with the speculation that a police action may be called for.

Jack was in his quarters when a corporal from the royal signals brigade arrived in his doorway. “Lieutenant Commander Morrison? A message from the naval war office for you.” The corporal reported as he held out the yellow envelope.

“At least it’s not red” Jack mumbled as he took possession and allowed the signaller to leave. He returned to his desk to read it. The yellow envelope was used for the conveyance of orders of importance but not of a critical nature. The wax seal at back was a generic one from naval dispatch meaning it was a general order rather than a specific one. He broke the seal and took out the single sheet of paper.

_Message to all currently training units_

_By order of Admiral Brady all training operations are to cease effective immediately._

_All infantry units of company strength or greater are hereby confined to barracks pending new orders. All armoured units of platoon strength or greater are to cease training and to prepare all vehicles for transport. All specialised units should wait pending further instructions. All leave for enlisted members should be revoked immediately._

_Confirmation of receipt of this order is not necessary._

_First sea lord Brady._

At first Jack didn’t believe his eyes, he was to stop training? He had planned for at least another two weeks not to mention the third and final combat drop. His first instinct was to try to contact someone at command for clarification however when he did he was met with clogged lines and indifference. Every unit was in the same boat it would seem. His second instinct was to contact Winston but his calls went unanswered.

By this time jack was furious. He paced back and forth in his small room muttering to himself. “Just one more week” he growled to himself. “We’re going to miss the war over one fucking week.”

“Hey Jack” McCree said as he strolled into the room, not noticing or caring about Jack’s enraged state. “Someone delivered this at the front gate for you.” He said handing over a plain white letter addressed simply to _Morrison._

_Jack,_

_Meet me tomorrow in **the** square at midnight_

_Your humble servant  
Winston_

Now Jack could add confusion to rage.

“What’s it say?” McCree asked.

“I need to make a trip to London” Jack growled as he grabbed his weapon and helmet. He would go to the shooting range to blow off some steam. He paused on the top step of his barracks to survey the scene before him. Most of his troops were still tired from that morning’s drop so there were only a few outside. His eyes scanned the singles and pairs of troopers until they came to rest on one pair on their way to the firing range.

\---

“ZIEGLER!”

Angela froze in fear when she heard Morrison’s powerful and enraged voice shout her name.

“Get over here, now!”

She turned to Fareeha with an apologetic look. “Sorry” she said sadly. “He looks like he’s in a bad mood, I should go” she turned to leave but Fareeha’s hand on her wrist stopped her.

“You don’t have to do this” Fareeha said.

“But I do” Angela sighed sadly. “He has my execution papers, he can shoot me where I stand right now if he wanted.” She brushed off Fareeha’s hand and begun the daunting walk towards her enraged commanding officer. She no longer wondered why Morrison was always so cruel to her, his vague words and threats had done little to explain his hatred. All she needed to know was that her life hung in the balance.

“Yes sir?” she said once she was in front of the angry man. She didn’t dare look up from her feet into his eyes, or to the pistol that was always attached to his hip.

“What was your last time on the assault course?” Morrison barked.

“Four minutes and forty two seconds, sir” she replied meekly. The next slowest time was a full minute and a half faster. The fastest time was Fareeha’s clocking in under two minutes in full kit.

“Fucking disgraceful” Morrison muttered under his breath. “Do you realise how large of a burden you are on this unit Ziegler?”

Angela shuddered at the delight Morrison was taking in humiliating her. “Yes sir, I do”

“Then tell me why I shouldn’t do the whole unit a favour and carry out your sentence?” when Angela didn’t reply quick enough for his liking he tried again. “Tell me!” he shouted in her face.

“Enough!”

Angela spun towards the voice in time to see Fareeha striding purposely towards them.

“Enough!” Fareeha repeated. “I will not tolerate you speaking to one of squad members this way any longer” she said sternly as she approached.

At first Angela thought that she saw shock in Morrison’s expression, as if he had not expected anyone to come to her aid. His shock was only temporary but his response surprised her.

“Inside” Morrison said with a quiet ferocity. He turned sharply walked back into his barracks, almost knocking over McCree who was stood in the doorway.

Fareeha didn’t look at Angela before she left, she simply followed Morrison before disappearing inside the building.

Angela looked around in search of help. The few onlookers who had seen what had happened now looked away as they quickly retreated from the area.

“You alright there darling?” McCree chuckled from the step he now used as a seat while he rolled a cigarette.

“I... I… I didn’t mean to get Fare… the lieutenant in trouble.” Angela stammered out as she remained routed in place.

“I wouldn’t worry about Amari, she can hold her own” McCree smiled. “Though I don’t think I’ve seen Jack this mad in a long time. What did you do to get on his bad side?” he asked, patting the space beside him.

“I… I was part of an illegal research team but I didn’t know they were doing anything wrong I swear. I…” Angela cut herself off when she heard yelling coming from inside.

“I wouldn’t worry about those two.” McCree said. “What was the research?”

“I was researching nanite technology, microscopic robots, for use in medicine. The program stole my research and experimented on prisoners.”

McCree laid back, taking a long drag of his cigarette. “Well that explains it” he sighed. “Jack was a part of Overwatch.”

“Oh” Angela replied quietly.

“He was pretty torn up when he found out about the tier three guys. I think he blames himself for not working it out sooner” McCree said.

The Overwatch program’s enhancement program consisted of three tiers of subjects. Tier three subjects were for a lack of a better term, kidnapped or otherwise forced into the program against their will. They were selected based on their similarity to the members of tier two and tier one but also on the chance of anyone noticing their sudden disappearance. As such most were homeless, travellers or criminals. Tier two subjects were mostly volunteers with pre-existing conditions. Once a modification was tested on the unwilling tier three subject it would then be used on a tier two for further refinement. Tier one subjects such as Ana Amari and Jack Morrison were selected for their already excellent combat ability. The idea was to take the best troopers and make them better. Unfortunately this was at the expense of the tier three subjects who were exposed inhumane practices during the development phase of each augmentation.

“I was a T2” McCree said. “That’s how I met Jack. It wasn’t so bad for us twos. They gave me this” he said holding up his completely cybernetic arm. “And they let me fight again.”

“So he is torturing me because he thinks I was running a new Overwatch?” Angela asked.

“Maybe” McCree shrugged. He stood up and dusted himself off “Jack sometimes goes too far when his blood is up. I’ll have a word with him.”

“Why? Don’t you think I did it too?” Angela asked as the shouting inside increased further.

“Darlin, I don’t know what to think. I just don’t want Jack doing something he might regret, warrant or no warrant.”

Suddenly the shouting stopped and moments later an enraged Fareeha burst out of Jack’s quarters.

“Fareeha!” Angela gasped when she saw the other woman’s bloody lip.

“Not here” Fareeha growled she said to Angela as she shoved past McCree.

After giving McCree an apologetic look Angela set off in pursuit of Fareeha who was making quick progress towards their barracks.  “Fareeha what happened? Why are you bleeding?” she asked.

“It’s Morrison!” Fareeha said with anger and frustration as she paced her small private room. “He’s just so…” her words seemingly failed her so she let out a frustrated growl.

“Please, sit down. let me look at your lip.” Angela said kindly. For once she was glad Morrison made them carry full kit whenever they were outside the barracks, it meant that she now had her full medical kit on hand. Fareeha complied with her request and sat down on the edge of her bed. Angela sat down and inspected Fareeha’s wound. “Well at least you won’t need stiches” she said with relief. “But you need to ice your cheek” she said before retrieving a cold pack from her kit and applying it to Fareeha’s face.

“Ah! That’s cold.” Fareeha frowned.

“That’s the point” Angela mumbled as she fought against Fareeha’s hand to keep the ice steady. “What happened in there?”

“I didn’t mean to hit him. It just sort of happened” Fareeha said.

“What did he say?”

“Some stuff about you” Fareeha sighed. “But that’s not why I hit him, it made me want to but I didn’t. He said some things about my mother that he really shouldn’t have.”

Angela didn’t ask for details, Fareeha’s hurt expression said enough.

“Then I hit him so he hit me. They’ll probably throw me out for this, they warned me about fighting last time” Fareeha said sadly.

“They’d throw you out for this?” Angela gasped.

Fareeha nodded sadly. “I don’t have the best disciplinary record and now that I’m an officer they expect more of me.”

“I didn’t mean to get you in trouble” Angela said quietly. “Maybe if I talk to Morrison…”

“No” Fareeha said quickly. “I’m not letting you take the blame for this. You didn’t do anything wrong. He is the one at fault for treating you so poorly.”

“But I can’t let you get yourself kicked out because of me. This is your life…” Angela was cut off by three swift knocks at Fareeha’s door.

The pair turned around quickly to find McCree standing in the doorway.

“She’s not getting kicked out” McCree said. “Jack would never do that to Ana’s only daughter. Besides, deep down I think he knew he deserved it.” he laughed. “Tell your squad to get ready to move into the Gibraltar, training is over.”

“Did we get an assignment?” Fareeha did her best to quell her excitement.

McCree shrugged. “Dunno, but Jack told me to give you and Dowry a night pass so you can take your first watches in London.”

\---

Jack braced himself against the bitterly cold and damp wind that blew across an almost deserted Trafalgar square. It was almost midnight but the full moon lit up the square enough for Jack to see ten figures huddled around the base of Nelson’s column. Jack watched them struggle to keep warm under their thick jackets and cold weather gear, each member savouring what little warmth they could as soon they would be bitterly cold.

As the minute hand of Jack’s watch continued its march upward towards twelve three more figures arrived in the square. Even in the darkness jack could see that unlike the men and women at the column’s base who wore their officer’s uniform beneath their coats these new arrivals wore flight suits.

The Navy had always been regarded as the most superstitious of the services, even before space travel but since then the rights and rituals had expanded significantly. Jack, who now sat on the steps of the national gallery had a front row seat to one of the oldest and most devoutly followed naval traditions.

Although it had no official name it the right of passage was generally referred to as “The first watch”. Newly minted officers of all branches, Navy, Marines and pilots assembled in Trafalgar square at midnight beneath Nelson’s column. At the stroke of midnight their watch would begin.

For the naval officer, of which there could only be one per night, the square would become their ship and the column its bridge. It would be up to that officer to stand watch, taking all the necessary observations that one would take on a real ship before being relieved two hours later. After their watch it was the naval officer’s duty to report any and all happenings to his Lordship Nelson himself. Following that the officer would provide the same report to the nearest officer of superior rank. It was also believed that the higher the rank the new officer reported to the luckier their life would be. If the superior officer was not happy with the report they could order the new officer to take the next watch as well but if the superior was happy with the report then the pair would share in a nip of port or whisky, supplied at the new officer’s expense. This ordeal was made harder by the fact the officer enduring the trial was forbidden form wearing a boat cloak to protect them from the cold night air, their zeal for Queen and country would keep them warm.

It was much the same process for the new marine officers. The square became their camp. They would conduct a night patrol in the surrounding streets before reporting to Lord Nelson and another superior officer. Marines were also expected to bring a solider under their command to assist them on their patrol. The officer could bring as many assistants as they wanted providing they came willingly. Once during a particularly popular lieutenant’s trial an entire company of soldiers arrived to provide their assistance. This sudden influx of soldiers in London’s heart caused much panic within the high command prompting a large and rapid deployment of the household guard who believed that a coup d’état was underway. The officer who had caused the incident later received a letter from the Queen apologising for the week he had spent locked up being questioned and also congratulating him on his promotion.

As the youngest and considered by some the most childlike branch, the pilots took a different approach to the trial. At the stroke of midnight the officer would approach the column with their two wingmen and request permission from Lord Nelson to conduct a combat patrol. The combat patrol consisted of drinking at the surrounding bars. At the end of their two hours the trio must return to the square and report on their mission and state how many kills they had scored, with each drink being represented by one kill. This drew the ire and the envy of the other two branches.

As Jack’s watch marked midnight the huddled group reluctantly shed their warm coats before folding the neatly beneath each of the four lions. There was one individual that jack was most focused on, Fareeha. She stood ramrod straight as she waited patiently behind the others for her turn to address the column so that she could begin her patrol.

“Jack!”

Jack jumped up in surprise when a deep voice spoke his name from behind him. He spun around quickly, his adrenaline racing and his body poised to fight off any would be attacker. The voice in question belonged to Winston who now smiled at him broadly as he calmly walked down the gallery’s steps in a warm coat whose buttons now struggled against his size.

“Right on time, just as I expected.” Winston smiled. “I was worried you might not get my note.”

“I got it” Jack growled feeling embarrassed and annoyed with himself that such a large and easy to spot man had snuck up on him like that. “What’s going on? Why have I been ordered to stop training?”

Winston let out a tired sigh as he sat down on the steps. He patted the space next to him for Jack to take a seat. “A lot has happened since we last spoke.” He said solemnly. “We tried our best to keep her royal highness from speaking out after the loss of the Rival but she is determined. She requested to once more address the house tomorrow morning and this time she intends to keep her appointment. She’ll be calling for military intervention.”

“Oh” Jack said quietly. “Another police action?”

Winston nodded. “It will likely be centred on the fifteenth sector and all adjacent sectors.”

Jack frowned as thought about that region of space. If the action was limited to only that area it would be the largest deployment since the first police action which had encompassed twelve sectors, more than the nine that would be included in this one. “Where are we to be deployed?”

“That remains to be seen” Winston sighed. “At this point you won’t be.”

“What?” jack spat in disbelief drawing the attention of the naval officer currently on watch in the square. Jack frowned when he saw the young man write something in his watch book.

“You’re not classified as combat ready.” Winston explained. “You said it yourself; you need three jumps to be ready. You had me petition the training board for funding approval. You said it was vital.”

Jack swore under his breath. His team would miss the action all because he fought with the accountants. “Is there nothing we can do? We can’t miss this chance to get out there and do something.”

“Jack” Winston smiled. “Would I bring you out here just to give you bad news? I called in some favours and I got you an invite to join the next round of the savannah war-games.”

“The savannah games? But they start in two days! My guys won’t be ready by then. How did you get us in on such short notice? The units are selected months in advance.”

“Like I said, I called in some favours” Winston said cryptically. “If you and your platoon can prove yourself in the games then I’m sure you’ll be rated combat ready. While you’ll miss the first wave of deployments I’m sure you’ll be a part of the second, providing you make a name for yourselves.”

\---

“Sir if I may, I’d like to report on my patrol” Fareeha stood ramrod straight in her best uniform in front of the first superior officer she found. She had spotted him entering the square coming from the naval war offices and had pounced on the chance to give her report to anyone that wasn’t Morrison.

“I’m sorry but I don’t have the time. Find someone else” the officer said quickly as he rushed pass Fareeha towards The Mall.

“Of course sir” Fareeha said sadly. “Sorry to bother you, sir”

Although the officer had opened the distance between himself and Fareeha he paused and turned back. “What’s your name lieutenant?”

“Fareeha Amari, Sir” Fareeha replied as she resumed her impeccable posture.

“Amari” the officer said quietly to himself before quickly looking at his watch. “Make your report quick lieutenant” he said as he walked back to Fareeha.

It was now in light of a street lamp that Fareeha saw who she was about to report to. Before her stood Admiral Hawke, Commander of the first destroyer squadron and personal friend to the Queen.

“Oh my apologies sir, I shouldn’t trouble someone like yourself with this…” Fareeha stuttered.

“Come now lieutenant, I haven’t got all night. Your report.”

“Uhh… I spotted three drunk enlisted men at the corner of St James street and Jermyn Street. I found another arguing with the guards outside St James’s palace. All told I counted one hundred and twenty seven people during my two hour patrol.” Fareeha said with increasing confidence.

“And how many naval personal?” The admiral asked with a slight smirk.

“Fifty nine uniformed including yourself sir, only twenty two officers.”

The admiral nodded. “Thankyou for your report lieutenant, you may stand down.”

“Thankyou sir.” Fareeha said with a proud smile. “Would you share a drink with me? To celebrate?” she asked as she reached into her shirt for a flask.

“Were I not in such a rush I would happily share in your joy but I really must be going. Congratulations lieutenant.” The admiral said before briskly walking away towards the Palace.

Disappointed Fareeha put her flask away and slowly walked back to the lion that protected her coat. It was two AM now and the excitement and joy of the night had worn off, now she felt the cold and exhausted. The prospect of the walk to the nearest landing pad to catch her ride to the Gibraltar was not something she looked forward to.

\---

Angela was still awake by the time Fareeha made it back to the Gibraltar. The medic had been unable to sleep in her new quarters that she now shared with bravo’s medic and the platoon’s radio man. While it was nice to now only share a room with two others other people rather than the whole squad it didn’t make sleeping any easier. Sleeping aboard a ship was a new experience for Angela who could still count the number of times she had been in orbit on one hand. The noise and vibration of the ship would take some getting used to.

Rather than lying away in her bunk listening to her bunkmates sleep Angela had gone for a walk. Despite getting a brief orientation with the rest of the platoon on arrival she quickly found herself lost. The ship was still running on a skeleton crew and of the little crew that was aboard most were helping with getting the ship supplied. She was about to give up all hope of finding her way back to her quarters when for the first time since her walk began she saw another living person. She recognised this person right away but it gave her little hope.

“Uhh… excuse me, Oxton? I seem to be a bit lost.” Angela said as the pilot approached her.

“It’s not enough that I have to ferry you up and down at all hours but now I have to play tour guide?” The pilot grumbled as she put down her helmet and flight bag. “Keep following this hallway until you get to the mid section blast door. Go right for three bulkheads then take the lift down one deck. Your section will be on your right.” She sighed.

“Thankyou” Angela said quickly before hurrying away from the grumpy pilot.

After following the pilot’s directions Angela found herself back in familiar territory. She had expected the common area to be empty but on her return she found the platoon’s leadership team and the ship’s first officer siting in quiet conversation at one of the tables that dotted the room.

Few people took notice of Angela’s arrival but she could tell she was intruding on something. She dropped her head and stayed on the edge of the room, taking the long way around to get to her sleeping quarters.

Angela caught Fareeha’s eye when the lieutenant looked up from the table. Although it was only for a moment Angela saw the briefest of smiles grace Fareeha’s features before she returned her focus to the conversation around the table. It was clear to Angela that she wouldn’t be able to speak to Fareeha until morning.

\---

“This seat taken?”

Fareeha was pulled from her thoughts by Angela’s quiet voice. The blonde now stood across the table from her holding her breakfast tray.

“Go for it” Fareeha smiled, nodding to the empty seat across from her. “How do you like the ship?”

“Its very… Spartan” Angela shrugged as she poked at her ship’s biscuit and porridge. “What was last night about?”

Fareeha glanced down at her watch, it was five minutes to nine. “I suppose it won’t hurt to tell you a few minutes early.” She sighed. The queen is about to address parliament, there is to be another police action.”

“Oh” Angela said in surprise. “And what does that mean for us?”

That had been the question of that night’s meeting. Jack had informed her and the other leadership that although they would miss the first wave he had a plan to get them a deployment.

“Oi! Turn that thing up” One of the ship’s crew yelled at the news report that had been quietly playing on one of the screens in the mess.

The screen bore the image of her royal majesty the Queen, a frail looking woman dressed plainly, without the extravagance one would expect from the most powerful person in the empire. Although she was entering her final years she still managed to stand unaided before the House of Commons which now teemed with representatives of earth and her colonies.

_“… and now as I stand before you I would be remise if I did not remind you of your duty. You were elected and I allowed you to form government to serve my subjects both here and beyond the stars. You have failed in your duty to serve. My subjects in the far reaches of the empire are hounded by scoundrels and wicked persons who continue to operate unchecked. Who now in their hubris attack my personal representatives and the ships of this empire’s navy in open defiance. To what response? My subjects cry out for assistance but their calls fall on your indifferent ears. You all swore to an oath to me and the people you were elected to represent which is why I must now ask that you act now or step aside and allow a new, more capable government to form.”_

\---

“Alright then ladies and gents you heard it from the lady herself, there is to be a police action” McCree said before the assembled unit to much excitement. “However at this stage we won’t be a part of it. We haven’t been rated combat ready yet.” He said to the almost unanimous disappointment of the platoon.

“Are we really going to miss the big show over a single drop?” one solider asked. Word had already gotten out that all training had been suspended.

“I wouldn’t worry about that” McCree said. “I’m not sure how he did it but Morrison has gotten us an invite to the most exclusive party around… as of tomorrow night we will be going on manoeuvres.”

\---

The savannah war games or as they were more commonly known as simply _Manoeuvres_ were one of the most important events on the military calendar. The two day war game simulated a full scale ground conflict between a set of attackers and defenders. The attackers were played by nine different military units. The defenders were made up of the ever reliable training androids.

The games were split up into three sectors, North, Middle and South. Each sector was to accommodate three units, a veteran unit and two green units. The amount of troops that participate in the games varied on the scenario but on most occasions each unit would send a company to represent them in the games.

Although these units were supposed to be working together towards a common goal there was often rivalry between the sectors and the units as to who could complete the objective first. There was no prize except for bragging rights and prestige. It was an environment where careers were made or broken.

\---

Corporal Jacob Broad of the 43rd infantry battalion second company was not enjoying his time in the war games. He like many others in his section had been overjoyed when they had found out that they would get to participate however now as he crouched in a muddy stream at an ungodly hour he wondered why he had gotten worked up in the first place. His watch had started almost an hour ago and his boots had been soaked for at least that long. The cold water had immediately seeped into his boots and socks and the mud added more weight to his already heavy gear.

Broad was not alone in his misery. To his left, almost invisible in the darkness of the African night was his section’s heavy gunner who now lay almost half asleep against his weapon. Beyond the gunner was the final member of the forward observation point who now scanned the dark horizon with a night vision scope.

The observation post was one of three that represented the front line of the southern sector. Unlike the others the southern sector was rather uninteresting. It didn’t have the mountains of the northern sector or the raging river of the middle sector. What the southern sector did have was open plains and a small village at the point where four roads met. The village was basic, its tallest building was only two stories tall and was designed to look like a fledging colony fit for only a few dozen people. Normally such a place would warrant no more than a second glance however tonight it was the most important thing for miles around.

The primary objective of the southern sector’s troops was to capture and hold the small village and its vital road intersection as it was a key line of reinforcements to the middle sector. The past day had seen infantry and vehicles advance from their staging location towards the objective. They encountered more resistance than they had expected and what had been planned as a twilight assault was now due to begin in the pitch dark.

Things were made worse by the landscape. While the village and the approach was relatively flat to the south of the village was a small hill. Although small, this hill and its entrenchments had a commanding view of the area and the approach; it could put a stop to any attempt to take the village.

As the taking the hill was the lynchpin of the entire plan to take the village it had been given to the most prestigious and experienced unit in the sector, 3 Commando, who had planned to assault the hill with infantry and armoured vehicle support before assisting in the attack on the village. With the sudden and last minute introduction of a fourth unit into the sector the plan had changed.

“I knew I should’ve been a pilot” Broad mumbled to himself as he raised his foot out of the stream only to watch the water empty out of his boot.

The gunner opened his mouth to speak but stopped when he heard movement behind him.

“Elephant” whispered the darkness behind the observation point.

“Castle” Broad replied before his commanding officer crawled out of the grass and lowered himself quietly into the muddy ditch.

“Evening lads” the officer ginned. “How you holding up?” he asked to a mumbled response. “Don’t worry” he said dismissively. “The show is about to start soon and there will be plenty to do. What time did the assault team pass though?” he asked.

“That new unit?” Broad asked. “They didn’t pass through here.”

The officer frowned and brought up his radio. “OPs check in. Has anyone seen the rookie unit pass through?”

One by one each observation point reported that no one had moved through the lines.

“Shit” the officer swore under his breath as the last op reported in.

“What’s the plan boss?” Broad asked.

“I don’t fucking know. How are we supposed to assault this fucking town if these rookies can’t get their shit together?” the officer said with frustration as he changed radio channels to the command net.

Broad shook his head in pity for his commanding officer and turned his attention back towards the front. He only half paid attention to the conversation between high command and the officer.

“How can they be ready if they didn’t pass through the line?” the officer practically shouted into the handset.

Broad bit back laughter at his officer’s defeated sigh when command told him to sit tight and to get ready to attack the village.

“If they aren’t attacking that hill when we go over the top this is going to be a very short and very painful exercise.” The officer sighed.

Over the next few minutes more troopers filtered into the muddy ditch turned trench. Each made their own preparations for what was about to come, the idea of getting shot by an android’s stun weapon was not something anyone looked forward to.

“One minute” the order was whispered from one trooper to the next down the line.

“What’s that?” A trooper who was crouched beside Broad asked as they pointed to the sky.

“I don’t see anything mate, eyes front.” Broad replied.

“I swear I saw lights.” The solider mumbled.

“Thirty seconds…“ The officer cut himself off as a series of dull thuds reached them from the direction of the hill. “What was that?” he whispered.

The answer came in form of the sounds of distant gunfire, grenades and muzzle flashes on the hill. The ODSTs had arrived.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So im not dead which is cool I guess.


	10. Chapter 10

The arrival of a captain aboard their ship was always a sight to behold. As per tradition and as a mark of respect the whole ship’s complement turned out in their best uniforms in the ship’s hanger bay ready to greet their commanding officer. Each watch and section stood in perfect formation with their officer out in front as they waited silently for the transport to arrive. It was expected that a ship’s marine complement be in attendance too in their best uniforms and cleanest equipment. Normally this would mean the marines would wear their most formal uniforms, normally.

A hushed whisper rippled through the HMS Gibraltar’s crew when the ODSTs marched out into the hanger bay in their combat gear and not their formal uniform. At the front of the column marched their commanding officer Morrison who unlike his troops did not carry his weapon, only his sidearm in its holster.

“A bold statement” lieutenant Lindholm remarked when Morrison took his place beside the acting captain.

Morrison was denied the chance to respond as the arrival of the transport that held the Gibraltar’s captain filled the hanger with noise.

As soon as the transport’s rear door had opened a large hulking man stepped out. Even from a distance any one could see not only his impressive size but also the large number of medals and commendations that adorned his broad chest. The man’s shiny chest almost drew away from the fact that he held a leather document’s pouch beneath his arm.

“Captain Whilhelm” Brigitte said as she saluted her captain. “The Gibraltar and her crew are ready and awaiting your orders.”

“Thankyou” the captain replied. “I think I shall read out my commission then we might get started.”

“We would follow you anywhere, commission or not” Brigitte said.

“My, aren’t we keen?” Reinhardt laughed. “In that case you may let the crew return to their normal duties.” At this point he turned to Morrison who until now had been standing almost motionless with his helmet visor blackened. “Morrison is it not?” Reinhardt asked. “Would you mind joining me in my quarters? I have both your and my own orders.”

\---

“Ah so you do have a face beneath that helmet of yours!” Reinhardt laughed as Morrison appeared in the doorway of the captain’s quarters. Brigitte was already there and joined her captain’s laughter.

Normally jack would not be in the mood for such humour but as the captain had his orders Jack smiled at the joke. “I hope you don’t mind, I wanted my guys to stand out from the rest.” he explained.

“And stand out they did!” Reinhardt agreed. “Very fearsome.”

“It’s a shame so many of them are still green and unblooded.” Brigitte remarked with a smug grin towards Jack.

“Combat experience does not a good soldier make” Reinhardt said kindly. “Take yourself for example, have you seen combat out of the simulations?” he remarked with a tone that a father would use with an over eager child.

Jack joined Reinhardt’s quiet chuckle as he took a seat beside the now smouldering Brigitte, across from the imposing captain.

“Now to business” Reinhardt said opening the leather pouch on his desk. He took out two envelopes and handed over the one addressed to jack. “You may have the honours” Reinhardt said with a kind nod.

It took all of Jack’s willpower not to rip open the envelope that contained his unit’s orders. Instead Jack maintained his composer and carefully opened the envelope and took out the paper inside. Jack’s eyes skipped over the first paragraph, it was just boilerplate and fluff the real meat of the letters was always in the second paragraph. Jack frowned as he read the words aloud. “… you are to assume command of the 1st ODST regiment and take  aboard the HMS Gibraltar where you are to assist its captain to the best of your abilities.”

“That is quiet normal” Reinhardt said to soften Jack’s disappointment. He knew that Jack knew that the letter would say such a thing but it was no less disappointing. “Shall I read mine?” Reinhardt said, not that anyone would speak against him. He too skipped over the much longer letter to the most important part.

“You are to proceed to Laika station where you are to take aboard critical relief aid for the colony of XC-3. Following this you are to provide aid to the colony of AmC-12 and New Hoover… Further details for the relief of these colonies will be provided to you by the local sector command… you are to put yourself under the sector command for a period of no less than two months and no greater than six unless otherwise directed by naval command London.”

\---

“Fucking food deliveries?”

Fareeha cringed as she listened to jack roar in his private quarters. The door did little to stop Jack’s loud voice but it did dampen the response of whomever he was yelling at.

Word was quickly spreading through the ship about their upcoming mission, no one was pleased to be on the grocery run. A small group had already gathered outside Jack’s door with their ears pressed against the wall.

Fareeha rolled her eyes as jack continued to yell within his quarters. “I feel sorry for whomever is on the other end  of that call” she sighed as she got up to shut her own door not before giving the nosy group  outside Jack’s door a disapproving look that prompted them to quickly move on.

“Is this really such a bad thing?” Angela asked. The blond was lying on Fareeha’s bed reading a field manual. “Why is jack so upset?”

“He thinks we are being miss used.” Fareeha replied. “shock units do not hand out aid to poor colonists.”

“They don’t?”

Fareeha laughed and sat at the edge of her bed by Angela’s feet. “they don’t. think about it this way. How many years of training did it take you to hone your medical expertise?”

“Most of my adult life, you never really stop learning. Just last month…”

“A long time” Fareeha cut her off in the intent of staying on track. “How would you feel if despite all your knowledge you were asked to do something simple. Like you could only draw patient’s blood for the next six months, no treatment.” Fareeha knew that by the scrunched up face Angela made that she had gotten her point across. “not to mention that the sector that we are going to is a far from the police action as is possible. These next six months are going to be a snooze fest.”

“that doesn’t sound so bad” Angela said.

“for you maybe but think about everyone else. These guys are in the prime of their lives. They want to be off on exotic worlds and having adventures not handing out rice and protein packs.”

\---

“Now jack if you’ll just take a moment and listen to me” Winston said as jack took a second to take a breath between outbursts. “This isn’t the end of the world. Its only for a few months.”

“By then it will be all over” jack yelled, his lungs now full of oxygen and ready for another round of shouting. “Why are they sending us out to the middle of nowhere? Its unfair that they should treat us this way.”

“Unfair?” now it was Winston’s turn to yell. Jack had never heard the hulking man so much as raise his voice. “Jack you know that is simply not true” Winston said regaining his composure. “How much progress have you made these past weeks? Have I not supported you every step of the way? This is a minor setback at best.”

“You’re right” Jack sighed as he slumped down in his chair in front of the monitor that displayed Winston in his own office. “And I do appreciate all you have done. It just, I don’t understand why they would send us on mission such as this. We are a combat unit and we showed that during the war games.”

Now it was Winston’s turn to sigh. “That is a more complex issue. Put simply its… politics”

“Politics” jack grumbled. “Did I not kiss enough boots or did I kiss the wrong ones?”

“it’s not that you attached yourself to the wrong person but rather you didn’t attach yourself to anyone.” Winston explained.

“What about Lord Albury?”

“his lordship has taken great efforts to keep himself distant from you.” Winston explained. “He did it out of courtesy to you” he was quick to add. “He didn’t want you and your unit painted with the same brush as himself but I’m afraid that may have worked too well. Put simply no one knows who you fight for.”

“Who I fight for? What is that supposed to mean? I’m a naval officer.”

“Oh jack” Winston laughed at Jack’s simple answer. “In all honesty this is only a temporary set back. Once the people who matter learn who you are and what you fight for you’ll be well on your way to a better deployment. Until then I would encourage you to make the most of this deployment.”

“Thanks” Jack mumbled before leaning in to end the call.

“Jack wait!” Winston said quickly. “Please try to behave yourself at the ball tonight. There will be a lot of very important people there.”

“The ball? What ball?”

“Did you not receive the invitations along with your orders?” Winston asked. “Every unit commander who participates in the war games gets an invitation.”

“here they are” jack said after inspecting the envelope that had contained his orders. “You are hereby invited to attend the annual post savannah games ball” jack said as he read the invitation. “Sounds fun” Jack lied. “Thanks Winston”

“Make sure you go…” Winston said before jack ended the call. Like hell he would be caught dead at an event such as this. “McCree!” he yelled out, knowing his second in command had likely been listening this whole time. “I’ve got a job for you.”

\---

“Well shit” McCree mumbled as he stood in front of his wardrobe. In his good hand he held his ceremonial jacket and shirt. With his mechanical hand he traced the two holes with singed and blackened edges on the front of his shirt where his left shoulder would be. There were two other holes on the back of his shirt and his jacket. “Why didn’t I just get a new uniform” he sighed to himself. He put the shirt back and walked out into the common area. “Amari! Clear your evening plans.”

\---

Fareeha was just finishing up for her night out when her door opened. She had been using the mirror on the back side of the door to adjust her tie so she now suddenly found herself face to face with her medic.

“Oh” the startled medic said, her hand was poised in the air ready to knock on the now absent door.

“Hi” Fareeha said after realising who was standing in front of her.

“I thought it was locked.” Angela said as she sheepishly lowered her hand.

“Me too” Fareeha replied. “Do you want to come in?” she offered.

“Thanks. You look nice, what the occasion?” Angela asked as she entered Fareeha’s room and took her customary place on Fareeha’s bed.

“I’ve been invited to a navy ball” Fareeha said with pride. “or rather Morrison was who passed the invitation onto McCree who passed it on to me.”

“Oh, that sounds fun. Do you get to bring anyone?”

 Fareeha smiled at the glimmer of hope in Angela’s voice. “I’m afraid not” she sighed as she put on her heavy outer coat. “Did you need something?” she asked once she realised something must have brought Angela to her door.

“Not really, I just wanted to see if you’d had dinner yet.” Angela said sheepishly. “I found an observation deck that has a nice view of earth.

“Another time” Fareeha smiled. “We’ll have plenty of time to stargaze on the trip out.” She looked in her mirror one final time. “That Oxton girl is flying me down, I shouldn’t keep her waiting. I’ll see you when I get back”

\---

Broadly the members of the Navy’s officer class could be divided into two groups. Combat leaders and political leaders. Those who were promoted for their ability in combat tended to recognise and interact with people of similar ability. The same was true for those who had been promoted due to their connections and their influence within the private sector. Rarely did these two groups ever meet socially or professionally for that matter however the post savannah games ball was one of the few times when both sides came together, if only for an evening.

The combat orientated officers came as it was a good way to wrap up a few days of hard fighting. A nice way to debrief and unwind over some fine food and drink. It was customary for all senior officers who had participated in the games to attend, most did not need any encouragement.

The more politically minded officers attended the ball as ever since the first ball a member of royal blood had always been in attendance. Any chance to speak or at least be seen with a member of the royal family was not something to be passed up, even if the royalty in question was a distant third cousin more often than not.

As was tradition the ball was held in one of the many country houses that still dotted the English countryside. Space may have been at a premium but most still retained a few acres of open country for hunting and the like.

Most guests arrived by car, they pulled up out to front to be greeted by the staff and the property’s owner. Others who had come from further afield or from their ships in orbit arrived by personal skiff or other such luxury craft. Fareeha’s arrival stood out from the others as she was the only person to arrive in a ship rated for combat operations.

The ship flew a lazy circle around the large country house and its gardens before landing between two luxury skiffs, much to the annoyance of their pilots.

“Make sure you bring me back something to eat.” Oxton yelled from the cockpit as Fareeha disembarked.

“I will” Fareeha sighed. It had been the only way to convince the pilot to give her a lift. “Gentlemen” she nodded to the other now slightly dusty and annoyed pilots who had remained with their crafts.

The country house was lit up like a beacon atop the hill. Light shone from every window of the two story building while music and laughter reached Fareeha on the wind as she approached the front door. As she walked up the path towards the front entrance a car passed her and pulled up out front. Despite the distance Fareeha could tell that the officer was both large and well decorated. The officer had emerged from the car with their partner who already seemed uninterested by the event.

The new arrivals had been waved inside by the staff without a second glance and Fareeha had expected the same treatment.

“Can I help you?” one of the staff asked Fareeha as she walked up the steps. “Lieutenant” they added in particular distain.

“I’d like to go in.” Fareeha said.

“This is an invitation only event. Do you have an invitation?”

Not without a small amount of smugness Fareeha produced her invitation. “Thanks” she said with a grin when the staff member stood aside and allowed her entry.

\---

“Enjoying the party lieutenant?” A voice beside Fareeha asked.

Fareeha had been leaning against the wall of the large ballroom since she had arrived. Once she had seen that she was the most junior officer by several ranks she had suddenly felt self-conscious and has since become firmly attached to the wall. She had been watching the other officers and their partners dance and otherwise enjoy themselves so intently that she hadn’t noticed someone approach her.

“Oh, yes very much so” Fareeha quickly said when she realised that she had been snuck up on.

“You don’t need to lie to me lieutenant, I’m no one important” the woman said.

Before Fareeha stood a young woman of more or less the same age as herself dressed up in the finest ball gown that the London fashion houses had to offer. The woman herself was even more beautiful than her dress with unmarked skin and long brown hair. The woman was quiet clearly someone important.

“Now who’s lying?” Fareeha surprised herself with her own wit but what was more surprising was the woman’s laughter.

 “That’s fair” the woman smiled. “its not often I see junior officers like yourself at events such as these.” The woman said. “no offence” she quickly added.

“I here representing my commanding officer. He couldn’t make it.” Fareeha knew that jack choosing to not attend was an act of protest but McCree had asked her to downplay it for the good of the unit’s image.

“and whom might that be?” the woman asked with genuine interest.

“Lieutenant commander Jack Morrison of the first ODST regiment.”

The woman frowned and scrunched up her face in thought. “I can’t say that I know that unit.” She said.

“It’s ok, we’re a new unit…” Fareeha begun to say.

“Darling!” the woman called out to a man sitting with a few others at a nearby table. “Come meet my new friend.”

The man nodded to his friends before rising and approaching them.

“Darling this is… my how rude of me I never asked your name.” the woman said.

“Lieutenant Fareeha Amari” Fareeha said.

“Darling this is Fareeha. She is an officer in the first ODST regiment.” The woman said. “Fareeha this is my husband Harold of the royal battery.

Fareeha felt herself shrink under the artilleryman’s gaze. She could tell that the man was a Brigadier and a Lord however it wasn’t the rank that intimidated Fareeha. It was his eyes, fearsome brown that inspected every inch of her in search of something.

“You are improperly dressed.” The Brigadier said simply.

“No she’s not” The woman laughed lightly hitting him on the shoulder. “I think she cuts a fine figure in her uniform.”

If Fareeha didn’t feel so intimidated she might have blushed at the comment but her mind was too focused on keeping her perfect posture and thinking about what she might have missed.

“Amari was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross.” The Brigadier explained to his partner. “She isn’t wearing it.”

The woman leaned in and inspected the ribbon bars on Fareeha’s chest. “She isn’t. But surely that’s no reason to tease poor Fareeha like this.”

The Brigadier’s face softened and broke into a smile. “I suppose not. A pleasure to meet you lieutenant. I see you’ve met my wife Katie” He said extending his hand. “Your arrival during the games caused quite a stir.”

“Oh!” Katie said with a sudden realisation. “Is this the unit you were telling me about on the ride here?”

“to fall from orbit and then take a hill like that was very impressive, I only wish I could have seen it first-hand.” Harold said. “If you’ll permit me I’d like to introduce you to some of my friend.”

\---

The night was much more enjoyable for Fareeha from that moment forward. The artilleryman took her around and introduced her to all the people worth knowing. Whenever someone wasn’t worth knowing Katie took the chance to whisk Fareeha away so that she could recount everything there was to know about the ODSTs.

“It just sounds so dangerous.” Katie said. “You all must be so brave to do that kind of thing. Is everyone as decorated as you?”

Fareeha laughed and lent back in her chair which caught Katie off guard. “Hardly, almost half of the guys are just out of boot camp.” She lent in. “My medic, Angela, had never held a gun until a month ago.”

Katie hung off Fareeha’s every word as she explained the training process and how the ODSTs had been formed.

“This medic of your's sounds especially brave, to sign up with no experience for such a difficult assignment. What type of doctor is she? A trauma specialist no doubt.”

Fareeha frowned. Now that she thought about it she wasn’t entirely sure what Angela’s major was. Whenever she asked Angela about the type of doctor she was it seemed that she was a doctor of everything.

“I’m not actually sure” Fareeha laughed.

“Well you said she was quiet renown, there must be someone around here who knows her” Katie said suddenly. She grabbed Fareeha’s wrist and pulled her out of her seat before she could protest.  “I know I saw a regimental surgeon around here.”

“Katie…”

“Doctor Clancy!” Katie said cutting Fareeha’s weak protest. The merger man they were approaching was started from the quiet conversation he had been having with a friend. The friend quickly retreated from him leaving him alone. “You may be able to assist us. Have your ever heard of a doctor… what did you say her last name was again?” she said turning towards Fareeha.

“Katie, it really doesn’t matter” Fareeha protested.

“Ziegler! That was it wasn’t it?” Katie said. “Angela Ziegler, have you come across her in your travels doctor?”

Doctor Clancy thought for a moment before a flash of recognition crossed his face. “Of course I have” he smiled. “her work is second to none.”

“And what is her specialty?” Katie asked.

Doctor Clancy thought for a moment. “You know, I’m not entirely sure. She always seems to have a new project although I haven’t heard of her publishing anything in over a year.” He lent in towards Katie and Fareeha and in a low tone. “I have heard some disturbing rumours about her latest work however. Ghastly business.”

Fareeha felt fear grip her tightly around her stomach.

“But you make her sound so nice” Katie said to Fareeha. “What do you know of Angela?” she said to Clancy.

Before the good doctor could speak a voice spoke up beside them.

“Sorry but were you just talking about Doctor Angela Ziegler?”

Fareeha turned towards the new arrival. She found the tall and thin woman unnerving. While her red hair and slightly pointed face did give off a slightly predatory look it was her eyes that had Fareeha worried.

Katie it seemed picked up on the same vibe as Fareeha. “Yes we were.” She said with caution.

“Its such a shame what happened to the good doctor. But the law is the law.”

Fareeha frowned at the new arrivals tone, she didn’t sound sorry or sad at all. If anything she sounded like she was proud.

“Angela isn’t dead.” Katie said. “She’s a medic in Fareeha’s squad.”

The new arrival was taken aback but did her best to not show it. “She isn’t? How… wonderful. It would be such a shame to lose a mind such as hers so soon.”

“I’m sorry what did you say your name was?” Fareeha asked.

“Oh but I’m intruding aren’t I? I best be off.” the woman said before quickly leaving.

“What an odd woman” Katie said as she watched the woman leave.

“Doctor O’Deorain takes some getting used to.” Doctor Clancy said. “She has some odd notions. She is well acquainted with the ethics review board.”

“Why do you think she thought Angela was dead?” Katie asked Fareeha.

Fareeha wasn’t sure but was determined to find out.

\---

Fareeha did her best to enjoy the rest of the evening but her brief encounter with doctor O’Deorain weighed heavily on her mind. Why had she thought Angela was dead? And more importantly why had she been seemingly pleased that she was?

She had been seated next to Katie during the diner and although she tried to follow the table’s conversation she always found herself looking over to the table where O’Deorian sat.

“Perhaps we should ask Fareeha, she would be the person to know.” Katie’s words started Fareeha out of her trance.

“Sorry?” Fareeha said as she tore her eyes away from the other table.

Katie laughed and explained again. The table had been discussing the use of home bred militia for colonial defence. Fareeha didn’t know what qualified her to have an option on the matter but she gave the most diplomatic one she could muster; a good idea in theory providing their numbers were kept in check.

Her brief answer satisfied the table and the conversation moved on. Fareeha’s attention turned back towards the doctor on the other side of the room except now the doctor was nowhere to be seen and her chair was empty.

Although she couldn’t place why Fareeha knew she needed to find out where the woman had gone. She quietly made her excuses and set off the search of the doctor.

Apart from the ballroom most of the house was shut off so Fareeha begun her search outside. Away from the sounds and music of the party the balcony was a peaceful place. It was from here that she caught the doctor’s voice on the wind. It sounded to her that it was coming from the other side of the house

“You told me it was done”

Fareeha crept closer to the corner of the building.

“Well then your source was wrong!” the doctor spat.

Fareeha didn’t risk a peak around the corner; she could tell that the doctor was talking into a communicator.

“We tried it that way and she’s still breathing. Find out where she’s going and bring in a professional. Now tell me where are we with the other two? Have they resurfaced yet?”

Fareeha frowned. Where there other doctors that survived too?

“Then keep looking but don’t use any of our normal channels. Information brokers only... good. I’ll see you when I get to the site next week. I expect you to know where they are by then at the least.”

\---

“Christ love, good night I suppose then.” Lena laughed as an out of breath Fareeha came sprinting down the path towards the pelican.

“We need to go.” Fareeha said as she climbed aboard. “Now.” She added when the pilot didn’t immediately move.

“Ok, ok” Lena said as she raised her hands defensively. “What happened back there? Make friends with the wrong officer’s wife?” She asked she begun the start-up procedure.

“Nothing like that. Just get me back to the ship.”

\---

At first Angela had been quite happy when Fareeha returned from her party early, she had wanted to ask her about a game that she had seen some of the sailors had been playing. When Fareeha found her alone in her room her expression had worried her deeply.

“No. I don’t think I’ve ever meet a doctor O’Deorian before.” Angela said after Fareeha had recounted the night’s revelations. “What did she look like?”

“Tall, skinny with short ginger hair. Very predatory looking.” Fareeha said.

Angela though long and hard about her time on the research platform, “maybe” she said hesitantly. “She might have been a part of one of the visiting groups that passed though. I never spoke to them, they always went to the B wing.”

“Well she knows who you are and now she knows you’re alive.” Fareeha said.

“Do you think she’ll try to kill me?” Angela asked.                                  

Fareeha nodded. “She can try, but I’m not going to let her hurt you.”


	11. Chapter 11

“Navigator, are we set?”

“Set.”

“Helmsmen?”

“We are aligned and the HMS Willow has cleared our bow.”

“Engineering?”

“Drive is spooled to one hundred precent. Ready for jump.”

“Boatswain?”

“All hands present and accounted for.”

“Good” Brigitte nodded. “Then we’re ready to jump.” She turned to the most junior officer beside her, a boy no older than fifteen. “Go and inform the captain we are ready to depart with on his order.” She watched the boy salute before turning then breaking into a sprint out of the bridge. She did her best to suppress her laugher when the boy almost collided with Lieutenant Amari as she entered the bridge.

“Is something wrong?” Fareeha asked Brigitte once the boy had righted himself and resumed his important mission.

“We’re ready to jump, just waiting on the captain’s orders.”

The HMS Gibraltar like all other space fairing ships were fitted with a warp drive, capable of accelerating the ship to speeds multiple times the speed of light. The warp drive was humanity’s response to the fundamental problem with space travel; the need to travel long distances with only a limited time to do so. The developers of the warp drive looked at this problem and approached it by asking, why not just go faster?

The first drives had their problems; disintegration, explosions and more often than not the death of the test pilots were just some of the teething problems. Over years of tireless research, development, testing and failures a working drive was fitted to exploration ship _Hope_. _Hope_ was sent on a five year journey to visit the closest stars, 130 years later the ship and its crew had yet to return.

As later generations of warp drive brought fewer improvements to speed and efficiency eyes now turned to wormhole or “tear” technology. Although officially it was still in the theoretical stages testing of wormhole generators had already begun with mixed results. So far there had been five attempts to jump a ship from Mars back to the Moon. Of these five ships three have yet to show up, one had successfully jumped however someone had wrongly entered the coordinates and the ship had jumped three hundred meters below the lunar surface. The most recent test had been a success however the ship had turned up an hour later than expected and the pilot was found to be stark raving mad.

“Will Morrison not be joining us?” Brigitte asked. “It’s customary for the senior marine officer to present on a ships first jump.” She nodded towards the assembled officers of each watch, deck and department.

“He was held up with a conference with command.” Fareeha said with little conviction. The whole ship knew of Morrison’s displeasure with both the mission and its command. McCree hadn’t shown up in Morrison’s place out of apathy more than anything else.

Brigitte hummed as she turned her attention towards the front of the ship. The _Gibraltar_ had already slipped its moorings and was steadily flying away from the station had once been attached to take on its final complement of supplies. There would be no fanfare for the ship’s departure, it was just one of hundreds of ships that would arrive and depart the pale blue planet.

The bridge was quiet as the assembled officers and the crew on duty waited for their captain. They stood loosely in their positions ready to snap to attention upon the arrival of the captain.

“Have you been to this sector before?” Fareeha asked.

Brigitte shook her head. “I’ve been to Laika station once before. It’s a quiet sector. Sector command is only a cruiser, two destroyer and a dozen frigates and corvettes.” 

“So what you’re saying is that they’ll notice if we were to take a detour to somewhere more interesting.”

“Who knows” Brigitte sighed. “Maybe…”

Everyone snapped to attention when the main door to the bridge opened and captain Reinhardt strode onto the deck. “I wondered where all my officers had gotten to!” he laughed with the junior officer in tow.

No one laughed as they remained firmly at attention. Had they been at ease few would have said anything beyond a polite smile.

“Well then” Reinhardt grinned as he clasped his hands together in anticipation. “Let us begin! Brigitte take us out.”

“Yes captain.” Brigitte nodded. She took obvious pride in taking the few steps necessary to be standing beside the empty captain’s chair. “Helmsman, jump when ready.”

The helmsman, who had been ready for almost ten minutes at this point wasted no time in beginning the procedure to jump the ship. Together with the junior helmsman he pushed the ship’s throttle through its full range calling out each as they went.

“Manoeuvring…” the almost silent ship started to softly hum as its primary reactor begun to generate power.

 “Cruise…” the noise pitched up as the ship begun to move faster.

 “Combat…” the noise increased further still as the ship begun to vibrate sending a tingling sensation to the soles of every crew member’s feet.

 “MIL power” there was a loud click as the throttle reached its stops. Now the ship shook and rattled as the noise grew into a roar. The familiar metallic taste of the jump drive crept into everyone’s mouths as the helmsman paused to cue the ships intercom system. “Prepare to jump… Brace, brace, brace!” Before finally engaging the jump drive.

The ship lurched forward as a blinding blue light emanated from the front of the ship. The noise and the vibration increased to an alarming level before suddenly it stopped, plunging the ship into silence and stillness.

“We have entered jump sir” the helmsman announced to Brigitte.

Looking out the forward window was nothing but the darkness of space. The only indication of their incredible speed was the blue particle trail that was left by every exposed part or antenna.

“Time until arrival: fifteen days, five hours and twelve minutes” announced the navigator. “No corrections required.”

“Thankyou” Reinhardt said. “I think we can pipe the hands to dinner.” He said to the relief of those around him, dinner had already been delayed by a hour. “Lieutenant Amari?” he said with surprise, only now noticing the woman still standing at attention.

“Captain” Fareeha replied respectfully and with the slightest hint of pride. She’d had no idea the captain knew her name.

“A pleasure to finally meet you.” He said, extending his hand. “Would you join me in my cabin for dinner tonight? I like to begin each deployment with a big dinner with most of the officers.”

“It would be my honour sir”

\---

Still riding her high after being invited to dine with the captain of her first day of the deployment Fareeha returned to her quarters to freshen up. She passed by the packed ODST common area as her fellow troopers devoured their dinner. Her stomach rumbled as she was assaulted by the sights and smells of dinner. Unlike her comrades she would need to wait for her dinner, the captain would not be dining for another hour.

Fareeha was slightly concerned when she couldn’t spot any of the platoon’s officers until she remembered that officers did not dine with the enlisted and would instead be in the “gun room.” She paused where she stood with a frown as she tried to remember where on the ship the gun room was, she would need to find it by the next meal if she wanted to be able to eat.  She was so preoccupied that she didn’t notice the blonde head of hair pushing its way through the busy room towards her.

Angela appeared out of the crowd with a bright smile and a tray full of food. “Faree…” her smile was quickly joined by a faint blush “I mean, lieutenant” she said in a slightly more subdued tone.

“Private” Fareeha said kindly. She frowned however when she saw a red mark above the medic’s left eye. “What happened there?” she asked, resisting the urge to touch Angela’s wound, an urge that caught her off guard.

Angela’s face grew almost red enough to conceal the injury at the question. “I wasn’t expecting the jump to be quite so violent. In my defence I also needed to patch up two members of bravo squad.”

“Nothing to be embarrassed about” Fareeha laughed. “I gave myself a concussion during my first jump. It always catches the first timers off guard.” The ships medical staff had been less than impressed when she had presented herself not hours after boarding the ship for the first time.

“Would you like to eat with me?” Angela asked when she caught Fareeha staring at her tray of food for longer than was polite.

“I can’t” Fareeha said with regret. “The captain has invited me to have dinner with him and some of the other senior officers.”

“Oh. Well that’s a great opportunity for you.”

“It is” Fareeha nodded. It was with some sadness she continued. “And I won’t be able to have dinner with you in the future either. I’m an officer; I’m not supposed to mingle with enlisted troopers. I have to dine in the gunroom.”

“Oh” Angela replied sadly. “I shouldn’t keep you then. Lieutenant” she nodded before quickly leaving Fareeha’s presence.

\---

Reinhardt’s powerful fist crashed against the long oak table of his quarters, the thunderous knocks bringing stillness to the previously rowdy room. The dinner was drawing to a close and by now the bottle of port had made several laps of the table.

“Ladies and gentlemen! A toast!”

The table stood up on their unsteady feet and raised their glasses. Only the key officers of the ship had been invited to the captain’s first dinner of the cruise. Brigitte, the ships second in command was obviously in attendance, as was too the next most senior lieutenant, Oscar. He was a rather dull man who saw naval service as a means to an end rather than a career.

Morrison was there representing the ODST leadership. Now that the ship was underway his mood seemed to have improved if only slightly.

At the bottom of the table sat Fareeha and a junior midshipman. Were this to be any other dinner Fareeha would have felt insulated to be sitting with the fifteen year old who’d had far too much to drink however this was the captain’s table so she was simply happy to be there. The final seat was reserved for the officer of the watch who stepped in from time to time.

Fareeha hadn’t had much opportunity to speak during the dinner. What little she did say was often in response to questions about her mother.

“To her majesty” Reinhardt begun to which the table replied the same. “and to you all. I know this may not be an exciting posting but I feel that great things are ahead of us. So I say; cheers to us and to the future.”

“To the future” the table drunkenly echoed.

Fareeha like the rest of the table downed her drink in one go before returning to her seat. Her eyes struggled to focus on the remains of her dinner in front of her. Etiquette dictated that she keep pace with the captain, no easy task in this case. The other members of the table were in equal or worse states, only Brigitte seemed to faring better than the others.

“I believe we should call it here” Reinhardt laughed. He nodded towards the midshipman who was quite clearly incapacitated.

Fareeha breathed a sigh of relief, the bottle had been due to see her next.

\---

Fareeha stumbled into the darkened ODST common area alone. Morrison at the captain’s request had stayed behind with Brigitte so Fareeha had make the drunken trek alone. Thankful for the automatic lights she managed to cross the room, she stumbled only once into a table which thankfully didn’t make too much noise.

Fareeha’s room was the first of the long hall and she made a bee line for the door. She stumbled into her empty room and immediately started shedding her clothes as she made her way towards her bed. She’d managed to strip herself mostly of the stuffy ceremonial dress by the time she collapsed on her bed.

Despite her spinning head and churning stomach Fareeha managed to tuck herself under the cold covers of her bed, a bed that felt far too empty. Her mind begun to wander and fantasize about who she would like to help warm up her bed.

_\---_

Angela sat alone in her room with her medical kit laid out in front of her. This was the first time she’d done this since getting the pack and was surprised at just how much there was. She was familiar with most items, bandages, gauze and the like. Others she quickly worked out such as the various auto injectors for pain relief or adrenaline. Others had her stumped.

Angela was a fully qualified doctor and had extensive surgical skills however paramedicine was something she had never experienced. The closest she’d come was a rotation in an emergency department back during her training.

Looking at her kit she was reminded of what a medic had told her during the war games. _We deal with three types of patients; we fix those that can fight, stabilise who will again one day and make comfortable those that won’t._ A rather practical if a little morbid way of looking at the role of the combat medic.

“Hey Ziegler”

Angela was startled from her thoughts by the arrival of bravo’s medic, a young woman that Angela only knew as Hastings.

“There’s a lot in there isn’t there?” Hastings nodded to the collection of gear on the floor.

“I don’t know what half of it does.” Angela admitted. She had already told Hastings of her inexperience with combat medicine and despite the woman’s young age she had proven to be a great source of knowledge despite not having seen combat herself. “What _is_ this?” she asked, holding up one of the unmarked silver canisters.

“Liquid bandage” Hastings explained. “for chest wounds. It will stop bleeding and allows the lungs to expand.” She demonstrated by twisting the can’s top to show an aerosol can style nozzle. “Those smaller ones can be used for smaller wounds if you don’t have any other bandages. It also doubles as an antiseptic and its supposed to have a localised pain relief but apparently it doesn’t do much to mask the pain of having foam sprayed into an open wound.” She laughed.

“Let’s hope it won’t come to that.” Angela said as she begun to repack her kit.

“From what the other guys are saying about this sector I doubt we’ll need more than a band-aid.” Hastings laughed. “But at least we’re getting away from Earth. I’ve never been further than Saturn until now.”

“I’d never left Earth before this trip” Angela admitted.

Angela was going to ask Hastings where from Earth she was from when there was a knock at the door.

“Lucio what are you doing? You don’t need to knock to come into your own room.” Hastings teased as the radio operator stepped inside.

“Not my room anymore.” Lucio replied. “I’m moving rooms. Also Amari is looking for you.” He told Angela.  “She’s in her room.”

\---

“Hi Angela, come in” Fareeha was sitting at her desk surrounded by papers when Angela arrived in her doorway. “You can shut the door.” she added. “I wanted to say sorry about last night. I don’t want you to think I was being rude.”

“It’s fine, I didn’t give it a second thought.” Angela lied.

“it’s just…” Fareeha begun with a heavy sigh and motioned for Angela to sit on the bed. “Now that I’m an officer I have a lot of expectations placed upon me. I need to be respected enough that you’ll all follow my orders but detached enough so that I can make the tough decisions, decisions that might get some of you killed.”

“So because of that we can’t have meals together?”

“Among other things. I think we’ll need to limit these chats, it’s not strictly appropriate.”

“Right, so not only can’t we eat together but we also can’t talk to each other.” Angela said bitterly. “You, the only person who knows what I’ve been through, the only person I can confide in and my only friend on this ship. Thank you for your time lieutenant.”

\---

Over the next few days Fareeha did her best to apologise Angela for the way she had acted however she was unable to get the woman alone. Whenever Fareeha asked Angela for a moment alone the medic always replied “that wouldn’t be appropriate lieutenant” Fareeha hated how Angela always stressed the way she said her rank.

Fareeha thought about giving up trying to apologise to Angela but she quickly discarded the idea. The days seemed longer without Angela sticking her head into her room to ask a question, usually about military life. The nights certainly were longer without their late night chats or Angela simply being in her quarters with her, lying on her bed reading a book or explaining per past breakthroughs. Fareeha was sure if not a little afraid to admit that she slept better if Angela had already warmed her bed for her. She knew that she needed to be detached and to set her friendship with Angela aside but as the days went on she couldn’t bare it any longer.

Things were made worse by the close quarters of ship. Everywhere Fareeha went Angela seemed to be there or not far behind. Her only sanctuary was the meals in the gun room and an incorrect belief that the gym would continue to provide her sanctuary as it once had.

After a particular boring meeting Fareeha was feeling restless. Aboard a ship there were only few ways to solve this issue, go to the gun room for a drink or go to the hangar bay and workout at the makeshift gym. Fareeha after swearing off alcohol following dinner with the captain chose the gym.

With the ship currently in warp there was no need to launch or recover the ship’s transports or fighter aircraft. As such the ships were packed and stowed and the hanger bay cleared. Despite most ships being equipped with a permanent gym the _Gibraltar_ slipped through the cracks following its refit. As such the hanger bay and its heavy equipment were repurposed into a weights gym and a place to spar.

Normally at this time the gym was empty expect for the occasional member of the flight crew checking on their craft. Today there were no members of the flight crew to get in the way of her workout. There was however someone far more distracting. Despite having her back to her Fareeha could tell from a mile off that Angela was currently working out.

Fareeha was torn, did she leave and come back later or did she workout now and risk further upsetting the other woman. Rather than make a decision she found herself in the lurch standing awkwardly at the threshold holding her towel and bottle of water. As she watched Angela work out she couldn’t help but smile when she realised Angela was still running through a program that she had devised for the medic back in Thornhill.  

Fareeha couldn’t determine what was keeping her in the doorway, Angela’s form or her _form_. It was hard not to stare at Angela as she worked up a sweat in her borrowed figure hugging workout gear.

Rather than risk hurting Angela’s feelings any more than she’d done already Fareeha returned to her room. Perhaps paperwork would serve as a distraction. Something she immediately regretted.

Fareeha was saved from the paperwork she’d been half-heartedly doing by an announcement over the intercom.

“Prep ship to exit warp. We will be arriving at Laika station in thirty minutes.”

Fareeha breathed a sigh of relief as she found an excuse to pack up her work, their long journey would soon be over. She wanted to take the opportunity to take a walk around the ship and to see how her troopers were doing. She was not afforded the chance as Morrison was exiting his room as she did the same.

“Amari, when we arrive a Laika we’ll have a few hours while the supplies are loaded. Let your guys know that we’ll be giving them a couple hours of shore leave.”

“Thankyou sir, I’m sure they’ll be glad to hear it.” Fareeha grinned.

“Just tell them to behave but remind them that this is the most civilisation they’ll be seeing for a while so don’t squander it.”

\---

As she suspected everyone was extremely happy when the squad was told they would get some shore leave. Two weeks aboard a ship in warp could dampen the spirits of even the most motivated crew.

As the squad dispersed, discussing how they would be spending their hours of freedom Fareeha scanned the group for her medic. As the only blond in the squad she was easy to find at the back of the common room. She pushed through the crowd and found herself face to face with her medic sooner than she thought. “Angela, would you take a walk with me?”

“Is this an order?” Angela asked after being caught off guard for a moment.

“No” Fareeha shook her head. “A request.”

\---

The pair walked to the observation deck in silence. As they walked Angela planed what she wanted to say should Fareeha be trying to apologise. In some ways the past few weeks had been harder for Angela than boot camp. Despite her best efforts she had been unable to make friends with anyone in the unit, her failings during training were still fresh in their minds. It wasn’t that they were unkind to her however close bonds formed during training were difficult to match in the daily grind of ship life. She could at least talk with Hastings during the evenings however despite how nice the young woman was during the evening, during the day she was often unavailable or unwilling to speak with the blond.

“Now we won’t be interrupted.” Fareeha said as she led Angela inside and locked the door behind them. “Excited about your shore leave?” she asked as she motioned for Angela to take a seat on one of the couches that faced the impressive screen and the darkness of space beyond.

“A little” Angela admitted. In truth she was very excited, this would be the first time she had been on a space station. It being so far from earth orbiting a completely new star only added to the excitement and wonder.

“I’m sorry.” Fareeha begun. “I should have explained myself better and I should have thought about your feelings before I acted the way I did.”

“You explained yourself fine.” Angela replied sadly. “I understand why you need to keep your distance from me and everyone else, it’s the same reason why doctors shouldn’t get too close to their patents. I just wish it wasn’t the case.”

 “I’m of the same opinion, which is why I’ve been thinking we have two options as the current situation isn’t working. If you’d like I can have you transferred to bravo squad that way we can go back to the way things were but I wouldn’t be your commanding officer.”

“Whats the other option?” Angela asked hesitantly. While she defiantly wanted her relationship with Fareeha to go back to how it once was she didn’t like the prospect of being transferred. Hastings was a popular member of bravo squad and Angela knew she would be resented further should she be the reason Hastings was moved.

Fareeha sighed. “The other option is that we go back how it was before and we hope that no one notices and that it doesn’t impact our work.”

“What do you think?” Angela asked.

“I think that in the brief time I’ve known you that you’ve become one of my closest friends and that I don’t want to share you with Bravo. I think it could work providing we’re discrete” Fareeha said.

Angela was caught off guard by Fareeha’s words. Before she realised what she was doing she had her arms around Fareeha in a tight hug. “Sorry.” She nervously laughed. “We’re supposed to be discrete.” She said as she let Fareeha go.

“Only in public” Fareeha smiled. “We’re nearly at the station. Do you want to stay here and watch the ship exit warp?”

“Is it as violent as the jump?” Angela had no wish to injure herself again, her wound had only just healed.

“It’s not too bad.” Fareeha laughed. “Just hold on to something.”

“Ship exiting warp in thirty seconds. Brace for deceleration.” The intercom announced.

Angela looked around her seat for something to hold on to. She had only one armrest to brace herself on.

“Here” Fareeha said as she offered Angela her hand. “I don’t want you hurting yourself again.”

 “Deceleration in three… two… one”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stuff will happen in the next chapter, I promise. We'll be visiting the space station and our first colony. 
> 
> Thanks for your continued support despite my infrequent updates.


End file.
